The last time New York City had odd-even gasoline purchase rules, they were in effect for 79 days, and the time before that, 65 days.
Wisconsin until recently banned the sale of excessively cheap petrol (gasoline).Not all rules are pointless.
The biggest difference is that in the 1970's the government oversaw price controls on gasoline; set allocation rules that spread petroleum among industries and regions; and, at the beginning of the decade, even maintained quotas on imported oil.
United States rules for gasoline, for example, require at least 10percentt ethanol, which typically comes from corn.
In California, where clean-air rules make gasoline more expensive, prices could approach $2 a gallon.
But new rules on gasoline taking effect in New York and Connecticut on Jan 1. will reduce the ability of European refiners to supply markets in those states, he said.
THE Environmental Protection Agency's latest proposed tightening of limits on sulfur in gasoline, and its previous rules, will most likely have the perverse consequence of retarding the development of cars running on batteries, advanced biofuels or hydrogen — all promising but expensive technologies that have not become mass-market products.
Consequently, it has some of the strictest rules for gasoline, meaning it burns cleaner than it does in many other states.
The U.S. was forced in 1996 to weaken Clean Air Act rules on gasoline contaminants in response to a challenge by Venezuela and Brazil.
"No court has ruled that gasoline with M.T.B.E. is a defective product," said Rick Wallace, a lawyer at Wallace King Domike & Reiskin in Washington, who represents Chevron and Shell.
