Sen. Ted Erickson (R-Delaware) introduced Senate Bill 1282 today to help heating oil customers reduce their heating costs by requiring a much cleaner burning heating oil that will burn more efficiently and reduce furnace maintenance costs.
The legislation is supported by the Pennsylvania Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association, the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau and other groups.
The legislation will require heating oil sold in the Commonwealth have a sulfur content not to exceed 15 parts per million by May 2011. This limit mirrors the federal ultra low sulfur requirement for both on-road and off-road diesel. The on-road ultra low sulfur requirement was fully implemented in 2009 and the off-road by August of this year.
Heating oil and diesel fuel are in the fact the same product and refiners have been making ultra low sulfur diesel fuel to meet the federal requirements since 2009. Sunoco, a Pennsylvania-based oil refiner in Marcus Hook, now makes nothing but ultra low sulfur heating oil and diesel fuel for its customers.
The second part of the legislation will also bring heating oil into the state's biofuels mandate which already requires diesel fuel to contain 5 percent farm-grown soybean oil or other biofuels by May 1, 2011.
The use of ultra low sulfur fuel will also help the state meet federal mandates of limiting PM .5 particulate standards and reduces the state's carbon foot print compared to the existing fuel.
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