EPA on Friday proposed new regulations to require refineries to make cleaner gasoline. The cost? EPA says less than a penny a gallon. Oil industry says nine cents a gallon ? and higher gas prices.
Suzanne Meredith, of Walpole, Mass., gases up her car at a Gulf station in Brookline, Mass., July 2012. Reducing sulfur in gasoline and tightening emissions standards on cars beginning in 2017, as the Obama administration is proposing, would come with costs as well as rewards.
Steven Senne/AP/File
EnlargeThe Obama administration proposed on Friday new ? and more costly ? regulations of the refining industry to produce cleaner gasoline and clearer skies.
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If the new rules are implemented as scheduled in 2017, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says, they will spare thousands of people from premature death and prevent respiratory problems in tens of thousands of children. The cost: on average less than a penny gallon.
Not so, says the oil industry, which has been battling the EPA over the proposed rules. The new rules will add as much as nine cents a gallon to the cost of making fuel and will produce ?ambiguous? results, says The American Petroleum Institute.?API, the industry?s lobbying arm in Washington, refers to the proposed new rules as part of a ?tsunami of regulations? the industry faces this year that could add as much as 65 cents to the cost of producing a gallon of fuel in the future.
Gasoline prices are politically sensitive. Consumers often know how much they have paid for a gallon of gasoline compared with their prior fill-up. When pump prices are rising, consumers grumble and, if prices get high enough, cut back on other discretionary purchases. As a result, economists refer to rising fuel prices as a tax on the economy.
But will Americans pay more for fuel and smile about if they believe it will result in cleaner air?
?Some will, but the majority won?t,? answers Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst at GasBuddy.com. ?There is a sense among a lot of people that we are entitled to cheaper fuel prices than the rest of the world.?
The proposed changes would make US standards the same as most of Europe, Japan, and South Korea, Mr. Kloza says. ?We would be joining 45 other countries with tougher fuel standards,? he says.
Republicans quickly attacked the proposed regulation. ?The Obama Administration is modeling our regulations after California, which has the worst economy in the nation, and today?s announcement is essentially a guaranteed energy tax hike and unfortunately is just one of many radical policies coming out of this Administration that will deal a heavy blow to middle-class families and small businesses,? said Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, chairman of the Republican Study Committee, in a statement.??
In January, Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, often associated with Democratic issues, conducted what it termed a ?bipartisan survey? of 800 registered voters for the American Lung Association on whether Americans favored tougher fuel regulations and improved antipollution laws. It found 62 percent of voters supported new gasoline and vehicle standards, and 32 percent opposed them.
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The Jackson reforms ? the UK?s new litigation rules ? will go into effect in England and Wales on April 1, 2013. These new rules will have a significant impact on how litigation is conducted in the UK.
Having good audio on your computer can make all the difference in the world, but the form that audio takes really depends on your preferences and what types of things you do. 
ZTE is honing in on increased investment in 4G networks by China’s major telecom operators as it struggles to catch up with domestic rival Huawei Technologies, reports Reuters. ZTE and Huawei are expected to compete for most 4G network contracts with China’s three major carriers (China Mobile, China Unicom, and China Telecom) because the two telecom equipment makers?have support from the Chinese government. Securing contracts is especially important for ZTE because its performance has been lagging behind Huawei. ZTE warned in January that it will post its first-ever annual loss for 2012 (its earnings release is scheduled for later this week). According to ZTE, its net loss for 2012 will be between 2.5 billion yuan and 2.9 billion yuan due to delays in network projects and a decline in handset revenue. That is the first annual loss for the company since it went public in Shenzhen in 1997. ZTE’s strategy since the mid-1990s has been to focus on aggressively expanding overseas, taking on rivals Ericsson, Huawei, Alcatel-Lucent, and Nokia Siemens in emerging markets such as India. The company’s expansion has often shaved away at its profitability because ZTE offers prices so low competitors often give up instead of matching the bids. But Huawei still holds an advantage over ZTE because Huawei’s larger size gives it an edge when offering lower bids on contracts with carriers. Huawei, the world’s second-largest telecoms equipment maker after Ericsson, has forecast that its 2012 net earnings will rise 33 percent to 15.4 billion yuan. ZTE has said that it hopes to recover and make a profit in 1Q2013 by cutting costs and focusing on developed markets like the U.S., Europe, and Japan. Though China’s 4G network expansion will also be a key part of ZTE’s strategy, the company may have to wait a bit longer for to reap the rewards because TD-LTE is still waiting for approval from the Chinese government. But China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom have already been busy building out their infrastructure. Together, the three companies will spend 345 billion yuan ($56 billion USD) on expanding their 4G networks this year. China Mobile, the world’s biggest wireless network operator by subscribers, wants to set up trial networks in 100 large cities by the end of this year. In February, the telecom giant turned up pressure on the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) to start issuing 4G licenses soon