DoE to review Euro 2 sale order
THE Department of Energy (DoE) will review an order requiring oil companies to sell Euro 2-compliant diesel to consumers after a congressional committee wanted it scrapped.
Energy Secretary Donato Marcos said the department would consider the recommendations of three lawmakers who questioned Department Order 2018-08-0012, issued on August 10 with the aim of helping reduce fuel prices.
The DoE later made selling the fuel optional following a meeting with Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi and the Independent Philippine Petroleum Companies Association.
“We have to go back to the drawing board [and]study the aspects that have been discussed here,” Marcos said at the sidelines of a hearing of the Congressional Oversight Committee on Biofuels on Thursday.
During the hearing, Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel 3rd suggested amending and clarifying the order; Marinduque Rep. Lord Allan Jay Velasco, chairman of the House energy committee, recommended its suspension; and his Senate counterpart, Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, wanted it canceled.
Also, Luis Cruz of the Department of Health’s (DoE) Environmental and Occupational Health Office, Disease Prevention and Control Bureau, warned that Euro 2 fuel could lead to respiratory illnesses, including asthma and pneumonia; and harm the environment.
Euro 2 has a sulfur content of 500 parts per million (ppm), compared with the currently used Euro 4’s 50 ppm. Sulfur, when combined with water, may result in acid rain, according to Cruz.
It was also revealed during the hearing that the estimated savings of 30 centavos per liter would be wiped out, because the additional cost of putting up the infrastructure to sell the fuel would be passed on to consumers.
The order also runs against the government’s public utility vehicle (PUV) modernization program.
Energy officials, however, maintained that the order would help cushion the impact of higher fuel prices on PUV drivers.
“One-hundred percent of PUVs are consuming about 50 percent of diesel demand. [They] do not have a catalytic converter,” Oil Industry Management Bureau (OIMB) Director Rino Abad said, referring to a device installed in a vehicle that takes in these gasses and converts them into less harmful ones.
Such converters are seen in 2016 to 2018 vehicle models, according to him.
Marcos maintained that the order was temporary and optional, but both he and Abad did not say up to when their department would implement it.
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