DOE set to issue Clean Air Act guidelines

The Department of Energy (DOE) will issue within the week guidelines on how the oil companies will comply with the requirements of the Clean Air Act (CAA) specification in January 2003.

"Guidelines will be released within the week so oil firms will know how monitoring compliance will be carried out by the DOE," Energy Undersecretary Jose Emmanuel De Dios said.

De Dios said the new guidelines will include penalties to be slapped on oil companies that will fail to meet the CAA requirement. The energy official said the implementation of CAA will provide a more competitive market.

"There should be differentiation in prices. Some oil companies have varied estimates on the possible impact of the CAA. Some are saying that this would mean an additional 20 centavos to P1.50 per liter pass on cost to consumers," he said.

He said the public should be informed on the price differentiation of each oil company so they would know who could provide cheaper oil products. Both major and small oil players, De Dios said, have indicated their readiness to comply with the requirement of the CAA.

"They said they expect the entry of CAA compliant fuel," he said, noting that indications show that oil firms may prefer to import the CAA compliant components for the meantime.

But he said the DOE would convince the oil firms to put up some infrastructure and/or upgrade their existing facilities so that the country will have ready access to CAA compliant fuels.

Energy Secretary Vincent S. Perez, said: "They (oil firms) have their own strategies on how they are going to comply. Some will import a 100 percent (CAA compliant), some will blend, some will eventually upgrade their refinery to compete in many ways. They could use some available additives in the country. Some can import from abroad. For me, let the market decide," he said.

Perez said the DOE is modernizing its energy laboratory to be able to monitor some of these new standards. "That is one of the modernization plans of the DOE," the energy chief said. – Donnabelle Gatdula