The threat that a specialized blend of gasoline would send gas prices in metro Denver and the northern Front Range skyrocketing fizzled faster than a July 4th sparkler.
Gas prices in the region have remained steady in the month since motorists started using reformulated gasoline, a special blend that produces less ozone pollution. The Environmental Protection Agency mandated the region’s gas stations sell the blend from June to September — the hot months when ozone pollution is tickets — after declaring Colorado was in severe violation of federal air quality standards.
When the new requirement went into effect on June 1, Gov. Jared Polis and representatives from the oil and gas industry warned gas prices could increase by as much as 60 cents per gallon, which would have pushed the cost of a gallon above $4 for the first time since 2022.
Meanwhile, the EPA estimated the price of gasoline would go up 3 to 5 cents per gallon.
The EPA’s prediction has proven to be more in line with what drivers have paid at the pump.
As of Tuesday, the average cost of a gallon of gas in Colorado was $3.37, up 3 cents since June 2 but down 38 cents from the same time last year. Gas prices jumped 6 cents a gallon overnight Tuesday in anticipation of the July 4 holiday as families hit the roads for vacations and family gatherings.
Skyler McKinley, a spokesman for AAA Colorado, said he has been monitoring gas prices daily since the reformulated gas requirement began. And AAA has studied the impacts of reformulated gas in other parts of the country.
“I was surprised from that vantage point there were so many stories of doom and gloom from reformulated gas,” McKinley said. “That doom and gloom scenario was never in the cards the second Suncor decided they were going to make production here.”
Suncor Energy said it spent $45 million at its Commerce City refinery to make and store the special blend locally. Suncor supplies 35% to 40% of the gas sold in Colorado, so there is a ready supply that doesn’t have to be imported from other states.
McKinley said the concerns about gas prices reaching nearly $4 per gallon were worst-case scenarios that would have been caused by supply chain shortages or other disruptions. But those scenarios have not developed.
Earlier this year, Polis and U.S. Rep. Yadira Caraveo, D-Adams County, lobbied the Biden administration to grant a waiver so that Colorado would not have to sell reformulated gas. The EPA, however, said it had no choice but to enforce the Clean Air Act requirement on the state, but its leaders kept the waiver request open in case of a gas shortage due to unforeseen circumstances later in the year.
In the days after the reformulated gas went into effect, prices in Colorado jumped an average of 15 cents per gallon but have since stabilized, McKinley said.
On Monday — one month after the reformulated gasoline went on sale — the average cost of a gallon of …read more
Source:: The Denver Post – Business
