Investigating the Impacts of EPA Emergency Fuel Waivers on Air Quality after Hurricane Sandy
Publication: ASCE Inspire 2023
ABSTRACT
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) often waives certain Clean Air Act requirements regarding ultra-low sulfur diesel (ULSD) fuel use after disasters. Under the ULSD fuel waiver, regular or high-sulfur diesel fuel can be used in vehicles and equipment involved in disaster recovery efforts. This research examines the impact of the ULSD fuel waivers on sulfur dioxide (SO2) concentration in the regional air after Hurricane Sandy. The EPA waived the ULSD fuel regulations only for New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania, among the northeastern states affected by Hurricane Sandy. Panel data models were used to estimate the EPA waivers’ impacts on the SO2 concentration while controlling for disaster effects and other confounding factors. The empirical results showed that the EPA waivers significantly increased the SO2 concentration by 0.57 ppb. The findings can assist policymakers and decision-makers in understanding the potential environmental effects of environmental policies implemented during the disaster periods.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this chapter.
REFERENCES
Anastas, P. T., and Zimmerman, J. B. (2021). Moving from Protection to Prosperity: Evolving the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for the next 50 years. Environmental Science & Technology, 55(5), 2779–2789. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.0c07287.
Drake, M. (2020). Federal Environmental Exemptions for Natural Disasters and the Case for Ecosystem Resilience. BYU J. Pub. L., 34, 109.
EPA. (2016). Technical Note ‐ Reporting Negative Values for Criteria Pollutant Gaseous Monitors to AQS. United States Environmental Protection Agency. https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2017-02/documents/negative_values_reporting_to_aqs_10_6_16.pdf.
EPA. (2023, 21). Fuel Waivers [Collections and Lists]. https://www.epa.gov/enforcement/fuel-waivers.
Filonchyk, M., Hurynovich, V., Yan, H., Gusev, A., and Shpilevskaya, N. (2020). Impact Assessment of COVID-19 on Variations of SO2, NO2, CO and AOD over East China. Aerosol and Air Quality Research, 20(7), 1530–1540. https://doi.org/10.4209/aaqr.2020.05.0226.
Flatt, V. B. (2020). Holding Polluters Accountable in Times of Climate and COVID Risk: The Problems with” Emergency” Enforcement Waivers. San Diego J. Climate & Energy L., 12, 1.
Gerrard, M. B. (2006). Emergency exemptions from environmental laws after disasters. Natural Resources & Environment, 20(4), 10–14.
Hallegatte, S., and Vogt-Schilb, A. (2019). Are losses from natural disasters more than just asset losses? In Advances in spatial and economic modeling of disaster impacts (pp. 15–42). Springer.
Hofmann, M. (2021). Criminal Liability in Environmental Statutes: A Comparative Analysis of the Interpretations of” Knowingly” in the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. U. Tol. L. Rev., 52, 467.
Hu, X., Xue, M., Kong, F., and Zhang, H. (2019). Meteorological Conditions During an Ozone Episode in Dallas‐Fort Worth, Texas, and Impact of Their Modeling Uncertainties on Air Quality Prediction. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 124(4), 1941–1961. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018JD029791.
Iqbal, W., Tang, Y. M., Chau, K. Y., Irfan, M., and Mohsin, M. (2021). Nexus between air pollution and NCOV-2019 in China: Application of negative binomial regression analysis. Process Safety and Environmental Protection, 150, 557–565. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psep.2021.04.039.
Khodahemmati, N., and Shahandashti, M. (2020). Diagnosis and Quantification of Postdisaster Construction Material Cost Fluctuations. Natural Hazards Review, 21(3), 04020019. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)NH.1527-6996.0000381.
Kim, S., Shahandashti, M., and Yasar, M. (2023). The Impact of Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulation Waiver on Fuel Price Stabilization after Hurricane Harvey in Texas and Louisiana. International Conference on Transportation and Development 2023, 465–477. https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784484883.041.
Li, J., Yang, H., Zha, S., Yu, N., Liu, X., and Sun, R. (2021a). Effects of COVID-19 Emergency Response Levels on Air Quality in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, China. Aerosol and Air Quality Research, 21(2), 200416. https://doi.org/10.4209/aaqr.2020.07.0416.
Li, Y.-L., Chuang, T.-W., Chang, P., Lin, L.-Y., Su, C.-T., Chien, L.-N., and Chiou, H.-Y. (2021b). Long-term exposure to ozone and sulfur dioxide increases the incidence of type 2 diabetes mellitus among aged 30 to 50 adult population. Environmental Research, 194, 110624. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2020.110624.
Lieberman-Cribbin, W., Liu, B., Sheffield, P., Schwartz, R., and Taioli, E. (2021). Socioeconomic disparities in incidents at toxic sites during Hurricane Harvey. Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology, 31(3), 454–460. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41370-021-00324-6.
McCarthy, J. E., and Copeland, C. (2005). Emergency Waiver of EPA Regulations: Authorities and Legislative Proposals in the Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Murakami, H. (2022). Substantial global influence of anthropogenic aerosols on tropical cyclones over the past 40 years. Science Advances, 8(19), eabn9493. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abn9493.
Olsen, A. H., and Porter, K. A. (2011). What We Know about Demand Surge: Brief Summary. Natural Hazards Review, 12(2), 62–71. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)NH.1527-6996.0000028.
Pozo, D., Solórzano, S., Pérez-Medina, J.-L., Jaramillo, K., López, R., and Zalakeviciute, R. (2020). Remote Monitoring Air Quality in Dangerous Environments for Human Activities. In I. L. Nunes (Ed.), Advances in Human Factors and Systems Interaction (Vol. 959, pp. 496–507). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20040-4_45.
Rodgers, M. O., and Rodgers, A. W. (2020). Impacts of traffic-related air pollution on policy-and decision-making. In Traffic-Related Air Pollution (pp. 361–381). Elsevier.
Shareefdeen, Z., and Elkamel, A. (2022). Introduction to Hazardous Waste Management and Control. In Z. Shareefdeen (Ed.), Hazardous Waste Management (pp. 1–26). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-95262-4_1.
Stevens, O. (2022). Hidden in Plain Sight: The Dangers of Environmental Protections Waivers. 97 Indiana Law Journal 785 (2022), 97(2). https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/ilj/vol97/iss2/9.
Subramanian, R., Ellis, A., Torres-Delgado, E., Tanzer, R., Malings, C., Rivera, F., Morales, M., Baumgardner, D., Presto, A., and Mayol-Bracero, O. L. (2018). Air Quality in Puerto Rico in the Aftermath of Hurricane Maria: A Case Study on the Use of Lower Cost Air Quality Monitors. ACS Earth and Space Chemistry, 2(11), 1179–1186. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsearthspacechem.8b00079.
Thomson, R., Espin, J., and Samuels‐Jones, T. (2020). Green crime havens: A spatial cluster analysis of environmental crime. Social Science Quarterly, 101(2), 503–513.
Wang, C., and Crutzen, P. J. (1995). Impact of a simulated severe local storm on the redistribution of sulfur dioxide. Journal of Geophysical Research, 100(D6), 11357. https://doi.org/10.1029/95JD00697.
Wang, Z., Lv, J., Tan, Y., Guo, M., Gu, Y., Xu, S., and Zhou, Y. (2019). Temporospatial variations and Spearman correlation analysis of ozone concentrations to nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, particulate matters and carbon monoxide in ambient air, China. Atmospheric Pollution Research, 10(4), 1203–1210. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apr.2019.02.003.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
ASCE Inspire 2023
Pages: 609 - 616
History
Published online: Nov 14, 2023
ASCE Technical Topics:
- Air pollution
- Air quality
- Business management
- Chemical compounds
- Chemical elements
- Chemicals
- Chemistry
- Disaster risk management
- Disasters and hazards
- Energy consumption
- Energy engineering
- Energy sources (by type)
- Environmental engineering
- Environmental Protection Agency
- Federal government
- Fuels
- Government
- Hurricanes, typhoons, and cyclones
- Natural disasters
- Non-renewable energy
- Organizations
- Petroleum
- Pollution
- Practice and Profession
- Sulfur
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.