Texas Orders ‘Boutique’ Fuel

The decision by Texas to require a special clean diesel fuel in the Dallas area reawakens trucking’s fear that carriers will have to buy fuel on a state-by-state basis.

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The Texas Natural Resources and Conservation Commission voted April 18 to require California Air Resources Board-compliant fuel by 2002. Service stations in nine counties in the Dallas Fort-Worth area could only sell the same formula of diesel as their counterparts in California.

Houston is next. To bring Texas into compliance with federal air standards, the state agency is expected to issue a similar rule for that metro area later in the year.

The possibility that states would follow California’s lead in requiring cleaner-burning diesel spurred the Environmental Policy Committee of American Trucking Associations to call for a study on the best way to establish a new nationwide diesel standard.

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