Mexico plans to halve fuel emmissions
In my wanderings on CNN.com, I came across this article and it was like a throw-back to the discussion we had about the CAFE standards for cars in the US, only just a little different.
In Mexico, apparently alot of their gasoline contains sulfur and small particles, and, in an endeavor to improve the air quality of Mexico City, in addition to the rest of the country, the government has signed off on an agreement that plans to reduce sulfur emissions by 50% before 2020.
With Mexico City being listed among the world's most polluted cities, it's no wonder that the government put this into effect. The residents lose 2.5 million working days every year to health problems caused by soot and other forms of particle matter. That's a lot of time and money that gets lost every year! And while the government may be shelling out more money to get its own oil company, Petroleos Mexicanos, to reduce the sulfur content of its diesel fuel and gasoline, they may be getting back more in taxes from the 2.5 million working days that will no longer be lost.
Do you think that this is going to be as beneficial in actuality as it appears on paper? Are there unforseen complications that are going to come up as a result of this?
2 comments:
I think the new standards to be placed on the sulfur emissions will be extremely beneficial to Mexico City. Of course it won't be a dramatic change. It will take time to clean out air that has been polluted for so long. The 2.5 million working days lost each year will probably decline--but gradually as well. The article states that 6 million cars fill the streets today compared to an expected increase to 12 million cars in 15 years. If restrictions weren't placed on the fuel emissions, imagine how polluted the air would be 15 years from now.
I believe that Mexico will profit a lot from this new plan of cutting fuel emission and improving air quality even though it is costly in the short-run. As we can foresee, the price of cars and trucks may increase because they need a new system of tail gas absorbent or something reducing the release of pollution. It is possible for them to build a new assembly line which may cost an arm and a leg. Also, we can predict that the price of gasoline is going to increase too. As it mentioned in the article, the government-owned oil company has to reduce the sulfur content of its diesel and unleaded gasoline. There may be some people against this strict plan because of the expensive short-run cost. However, in the long-run, it will benefit everyone in Mexico even though it is not very easy for us to predict how long it will take to clean the air and improve people’s health situation.
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