WASHINGTON—The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has broadcast regulations that require ultra low sulfur diesel fuel (ULSD) to be sold or dispensed at the vast majority of retail outlets and fleet fueling (wholesale purchaser-consumer) facilities that supply motor vehicle diesel fuel.

Refiners produce about 90 percent of their highway diesel fuel as ULSD; however, data from a nationwide survey indicates that more than half of retail stations selling diesel fuel currently have pumps without any sulfur label or have pumps mislabeled as dispensing low sulfur diesel.

EPA reports that this data also shows that 76 percent of the pumps not labeled ULSD were dispensing fuel that met the 15 parts per million (ppm) standard for ULSD, with an average sulfur content of 6.7 ppm. As a result, a significant portion of the ULSD being delivered to retail stations is unavailable for fueling ULSD vehicles only because of product classification or pump labeling problems.

ULSD regulations require all retailers and wholesale purchaser-consumers to label diesel fuel pumps with specific language notifying persons dispensing diesel fuel into vehicles of the sulfur standard of the fuel and the vehicles for which it is appropriate. With certain exceptions, retailers and wholesale purchaser-consumers also are required to sell or dispense diesel fuel they receive as ULSD from a pump labeled as dispensing ULSD, and ULSD a distributor receives from a terminal must be classified as ULSD when it is transferred to a retailers and wholesale purchaser-consumers.

Retailers, wholesale purchaser-consumers and distributors that fail to comply with the diesel pump labeling and ULSD sales and transfer requirements are subject to penalties under the Clean Air Act. Contact the EPA for further information.