[sustran] fwd: CSE on cleaner fuels in India

[SUSTRAN Resource Centre]

From: "webadmin" <webadmin at cseindia.org>
Organization: Center For Science and Environment

What's new at the Centre for Science and Environment, New Delhi, India

.......
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
A disease called pollutionitis

Most of Delhi's urban elite suffer from this disease which makes them
'rationally 
irrational'. The disease is accompanied by finger-pointitis and selfishitis
too. 
Hopefully it is not communicable at 

http://www.oneworld.org/cse/html/dte/dte990930/dte_cross.htm

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
Lacking teeth

Why the French pollution tax is unlikely to produce results at

http://www.oneworld.org/cse/html/dte/dte990930/dte_cross2.htm

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----

Crisis to crisis

Environment is a peripheral issue in Pakistan. It was not even accorded the
dignity 
of a separate expenditure head. This speaks volumes of the government's
priorities. 
Check it out at

http://www.oneworld.org/cse/html/dte/dte990930/dte_cross1.htm


----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----

A message from our Director, Anil Agarwal:

The deadly public sector

It is indeed amazing. It was only four months ago, in April, that the
Ministry of 
Petroleum was telling the Supreme Court that it is not possible for it to
supply 
high quality diesel. And that all it could do is to supply diesel with a
sulphur 
content of 0.25 per cent and even for that it needs more time. Ministry
officials 
had told the court that the cost would run into several thousands crore,
which they 
did not have.
 
A figure of Rs 15,000 crore has been bandied about in the media. And yet the 
government giant, Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), is now selling 0.05 per
cent sulphur 
diesel in less than four months and is providing even low benzene petrol to
boot. 
This raises a big question: How truthful are our officials when they make 
submissions before the Supreme Court?

The Environmental Pollution Control Authority (EPCA), set up by the Supreme
Court to 
manage the pollution problems of Delhi, had approached the petroleum
secretary for 
high quality petrol and diesel in early 1999 but the high official had said
there 
that he, firstly, was not sure whether air pollution in Delhi was serious
enough to 
warrant the huge expenditure and, secondly, he did not have the money to
make any 
serious changes in fuel quality.

So why has IOC suddenly become so environment-friendly? The answer has
nothing to do 
with the health of the people, for this public sector company. It is sheer
fiscal 
interests. In April, the new actor in India's refinery sector, Reliance 
Petrochemicals, had written to the EPCA saying that it 'may' be able to
supply 0.05 
per cent sulphur diesel. The EPCA wrote back asking whether it is indeed
capable of 
doing so and could it make a firm commitment. Reliance, eyeing the Delhi
market, 
soon confirmed that it can do so.

This letter was enough to put the cat among the public sector pigeons. They
knew 
auto manufacturers were strongly demanding better quality diesel to supply
workable 
technology, the environmentalists were demanding the same for health
reasons, and it 
was, therefore, quite possible that the Supreme Court would order the same.
Not 
wanting to lose a huge market, the IOC rushed in to protect its interests.
A senior 
IOC official even told the Down to Earth newsmagazine that the company
could have 
easily made the change but it was the bureaucrats in the petroleum ministry
who were 
holding up everything.

IOC indeed had to spend money to make the change but the cost was not even a 
fraction of what the ministry of petroleum has been claiming. God alone can
help a 
country in which bureaucrats are not even afraid to lie before the Supreme
Court. 
Even if they didn't know at that time that this was possible and were,
therefore, 
technically not lying, surely they had not done their homework properly.
And, of 
course, don't ask what the minister of petroleum was doing at that time.
Who cares, 
definitely not these politicians if a few people die!

In Delhi, the levels of particulates are extremely high in the city's
ambient air 
and diesel is the biggest source of extremely tiny particles which are,
from a 
public health point of view, the most dangerous. Moreover, diesel produces
sulphate 
particles which are the most dangerous of all particles.

If the level of suspended particulate matter in Delhi's ambient air has to be 
reduced, and the target set to reduce this is as much as 90 per cent, which
it is of 
now - then diesel use has to drop dramatically.

The Supreme Court has already ordered that all buses must change over to CNG 
(Compressed Natural Gas) by April 2001, which will probably reduce 25-30
per cent of 
the particulate matter produced in vehicular emissions. But as the goods
vehicles 
cannot easily move on to CNG, it is vital that better quality diesel be made 
available, which, as Swedish studies show, will probably reduce the
particulate 
emissions from these vehicles by about 5-10 per cent. Therefore, the drop
will not 
be dramatic but given the high use of diesel in Delhi, definitely of some
value.

With IOC producing 0.05 per cent sulphur diesel, a major obstacle has been
removed 
in enforcing the EURO II standards across the country. Now other Indian
cities can 
also start demanding the same. What is interesting is that IOC has taken
proactive 
action even to prevent any environmental threat affecting its petrol market
in 
Delhi. 

More and more information has been leaking out that benzene levels are also 
extremely high, a problem that comes from petrol vehicles, especially the
two-stroke 
vehicles. Though catalytic convertors reduce benzene substantially, all
Indian cars 
and scooters are unlikely to have these devices fitted for a very long
time. The 
only option, in the interim, is to reduce the benzene content of petrol.
IOC knew 
that some action was coming also on this and moved fast. 

It is clear that the state does not function in India. But, in this case,
what seems 
to have worked is a combination of non-governmental organisation and court
pressure 
and a good measure of competition.

The politicians and the bureaucrats can go hang themselves. 

- Anil Agarwal 


Visit our website at www.cseindia.org or  www.oneworld.org/cse and check
out what's 
new. Our website carries our science and environment fortnightly Down To
Earth, a 
weekly Feature Service of articles on environment  and a daily environment
newsflash 
by subject categories. We also give regular updates on all of our campaigns
on 
topics like vehicular pollution, climate change, biodiversity, water
resources, 
wildlife, forests etc. Our online library of books, journals, images and
videos is 
searchable through a thesaurus of environmental keywords. 

....
Usha Sekhar                   
Website Unit                    
Centre for Science and Environment                    

****************************************************************
* NOTE CHANGE IN OUR EMAIL ADDRESS: PLEASE NOTE IT AS FOLLOWS  *
****************************************************************
         CENTRE FOR SCIENCE AND ENVIRONMENT  ( CSE )
 41, TUGHLAKABAD INSTITUTIONAL AREA, NEW DELHI- 110 062
            TELE:        698 1110, 698 1124  
                         698 3394, 698 6399  
            FAX :        91-11-698 5879                      
            VISIT US AT: http://www.cseindia.org

                Email: webadmin at cseindia.org
****************************************************************