Gas Prices Across the Country Photo courtesy Phillips Petroleum
Company The new legislation to input ethanol comes from
environmental standards that have been in place in some parts of
the country for several years. In some areas, gasoline was
required to meet higher environmental standards in order to
reduce the amount of smog created by burning gasoline. Producing
this cleaner-burning gasoline caused problems in refining,
distribution and storage, which increases the cost of gas. "The
result of this targeted approach to air quality has been to
create gasoline market islands," John Cook, director of the
petroleum division of the DOE's Energy Information
Administration, said before the U.S. House of Representatives
Committee on Energy and Commerce on May 15, 2001. Cook pointed
at California and the Chicago and Milwaukee areas as primary
examples of gasoline-market islands. The clean-burning
requirements in each of these areas are unique to that
individual area, and only a few refineries can produce the
specia