Re-refining bill would help save oil, create green jobs
Bill Magavern and Gary Colbert
Daily News
10/06/2009
A bill awaiting signature on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's desk will help save millions of gallons of oil, encourage the "closed-loop" re-refining of used oil, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions - all with no cost to taxpayers.
And, the bill has a fairly unusual, but very welcome twist - it is supported by both the environmental community and the business community. Combine this with the fact that the bill will create new green jobs through expanded oil recycling and help advance the governor's environmental goals, and it seems clear he should take this opportunity to sign the bill, effect positive change in California and bring a bright spot to what has been an otherwise bleak policy climate.
Under SB 546, authored by state Sen. Alan Lowenthal, oil manufacturers have agreed to support, and voluntarily add to, an increase in the oil manufacturer's fund dedicated to help local governments pay for oil recycling programs, to increase incentives for do-it-yourself oil changers to recycle, to pay for a science-based life cycle analysis of the disposition of used oil, direct incentives for re-refining used oil and ensure that California is not exporting used oil pollution to neighboring states.
Because this program will be self-funded, not one penny will come out of the state general fund.
Oil is a costly, foreign-based resource that can and should be conserved through re-refining. Re-refining saves energy, with studies showing that the production of re-refined oil takes one-third the energy of producing virgin crude and that burning re-refined oil produces 42 percent less greenhouse gas emissions than the equivalent burden of "virgin" base oil.
In addition, SB 546 it will create incentives for re-refiners to expand and locate in California, creating a wide range of jobs for Californians from every walk of life including plant operators and mangers, lab chemists, truck drivers, construction workers, administrative staff and construction workers.
A diverse group of organizations have come together to back SB 546 because they recognize the shared environmental and economic benefits of the bill. Supporters include Sierra Club California, the California Chamber of Commerce, Californians Against Waste, Waste Management, Orange County Coastkeeper, Evergreen Oil, the city of Santa Monica, DeMenno/Kerdoon, Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster, World Oil, and the city and county of San Francisco, to name a few.
The United States has the highest per-capita lube oil consumption in the world and trails other industrialized countries in re-refining used oil. Re-refining the nation's used oil, instead of burning it, would save between 1.3 and 2.5 million gallons of oil per day - the equivalent of half the daily output of the Alaskan pipeline.
When put in the context of our dependence on foreign oil and considered in a world context wherein oil production has either peaked or will peak within the next 50 years, the need to stimulate the re-refining of used oil becomes obvious. SB 546 creates this stimulus in an environmental, business and taxpayer friendly way.
