HOW THE EPA MADE THE REFINERIES EVEN RICHER THAN BEFORE
WITH FAKE PROPANE
The 1970 EPA regulations requiring oil refineries to capture SO2, so-called "desulphurization," made windfall profits for the oil refineries. Before that, what was to become "commercial grade" propane, used today by most homes in four "dump-ground" states, was simply flared off as waste. It smelt terrible and watered people's eyes because it was loaded with sulfur. When the oil refiners had to capture the sulfur and gaseous odds and ends, or slop, that had been just flared off, they found ways to sell both the sulfur and the slop.
By 1975 oil refiners began to see profits three ways: they turned the captured sulfur into a champion money-maker when they began to sell to farming operations as fertilizer. Second, the oil refiners captured the poisonous hydrocarbons, including benzene, toluene and Agent Orange at the top of the refinery stack as "commercial grade" propane. This was possible because all the ASTM standard required of "commercial grade" propane was that it be hydrocarbon gas and hold a flame. Third, the oil refiners saved millions a year when they did not have to dispose of the slop as hazardous waste, since they were selling it as propane to home owners.
What were waste products and liabilities became champion money-makers. Sulfur fertilizer became required in production agriculture, and production of counterfeit "commercial grade" propane climbed until, as the GAO said, half the propane was produced in natural gas processing (real olefin-free HD5) and half was counterfeit propane, consisting of desulphurized slop, including benzene, toluene, butylenes, and Agent Orange, all waste products of high-heat oil refining. Instead of paying fines, refiners have homeowners pay them for the slop so the pollution comes from thousands of different places, so-called "non-point source" pollution. The EPA can fine only one refinery polluter, not thousands of home owners just trying to stay warm. Homeowners, put on budget plans with courtesy fill, burned the slop the oil refineries couldn't flare off.
These are the facts, and they tell a hard story. Insist on HD-5 propane all the time, which you can count on from Thrifty Propane. Call us today at 800-879-3152!
