U.S.

Paying The Price For Clean Air

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

June 7, 2000 / 7:52 PM EDT / CBS

Those numbers at your local filling station are getting bigger, and CBS News Correspondent Cynthia Bowers hit the road to find out why for drivers across America these days, a fill-up can seem more like a stick-up.

Drivers in Chicago feel their pockets are really being picked. At $2 bucks or more for a gallon of regular, gas there is the costliest in the country - a full 45 cents above the national average.

Helping fuel the rise, new EPA guidelines went into effect in late spring requiring 16 cities with poor air quality to sell cleaner-burning, reformulated gas. It costs more to refine, and with supplies tight, prices are soaring.

"If you want clean air, you're going to have to pay the price," says Gary Ross, an industry analyst. "They're very serious about this, because it's a very serious issue."

Regulating Gas

See what the EPA had to say about reformulated gas.

San Francisco ranks second, but hard on its heels is a city that might surprise you. Just a few gallons' drive north of Chicago, Milwaukee shares the same pain, mainly because, according to the EPA, it shares the same pollution. But a top Wisconsin lawmaker says that's just not so.

"Wisconsin's air is not dirty yet we're being forced to pay high gas prices to clean up other states' dirty air," says State Rep. Scott Jenson, the Assembly speaker.

With motorists fuming, Wisconsin asked the EPA to temporarily relax the new standards — to no avail. Now lawmakers say they'll take the agency to court.

Says State Sen. Alberta Darling, R-River Hills: "We're not a rich state, and we're not going to take it anymore."

The EPA argues the regulations are needed to clean up the air, but that doesn't matter much to people at the pumps.

And things aren't looking up for drivers watching as these sky-high prices continue to climb.