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6 December 2017
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| India exporting pollution (The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions) |
India's government says
it plans to phase out imports of a dirty fuel known as petroleum coke, or
"petcoke," after an Associated Press investigation found U.S. oil
refineries are exporting vast quantities of the product to India.
But
when it comes to domestic use, the Indian government seems to be going in a
different direction. The government this week argued in court that restrictions
on petcoke around polluted New Delhi should be eased for certain low-impact
industries. The move has infuriated environmentalists.
The
AP investigation found the U.S. sold about 20 times more petcoke to India last
year than it did six years earlier after U.S. refineries struggled to sell the
product at home. In 2016, the U.S. sent more than 8 million metric tons of
petcoke to India, enough to fill the Empire State Building eight times over.
Petcoke
is a bottom-of-the-barrel leftover from the refining of Canadian tar sands
crude and other heavy oils. It's cheaper and burns hotter than coal. But
laboratory tests on imported petcoke used near New Delhi found it contained 17
times more sulfur than the limit set for coal.
A
day after the AP investigation was published, Indian Petroleum and Natural Gas
Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said the government was formulating a policy to end
imports. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions
"We
are planning to implement a system to stop imports and use home-produced
petcoke for non-polluting sectors, such as cement production," Pradhan
said on Saturday, according to the Press Trust of India news agency.
He
said fuel-hungry India consumes about 25 million metric tons of petcoke each
year, nearly half of which is imported.
On
Monday, the environment ministry argued in an affidavit against a ban on the
use of petcoke and furnace oil in New Delhi and the surrounding states of Uttar
Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan. The Supreme Court imposed the ban on the three
states in October after environmentalist M.C. Mehta filed a petition. The fuels
were already banned in the capital.
The
ministry said it wanted certain industries such as cement manufacturing to be
able to use a small amount of petcoke for about a year until they could come up
with alternatives. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions
But
Mehta on Wednesday said petcoke has a big impact.
"There
is an environmental emergency with New Delhi as one of the most polluted cities
in the world. Pollution levels go up by 50 percent if you are burning
petcoke," he said. "Is this government a custodian of people's life
and health or is it there to benefit some industrialists?"
Mehta
said the government typically only takes action on the environment when forced
by the Supreme Court, which in India takes an unusually proactive approach to
environmental issues.
Polash
Mukherjee, an environmentalist with the Center For Science and Environment,
said the ban was important for ensuring clean air until industries move to
cleaner fuels or install emission control measures.
New
Delhi has been choking from air pollution in recent weeks. The air quality
typically deteriorates at this time of year because the winds die down, people
build street fires to keep warm and farmers burn fields of old crops.
The
pollution has gotten so bad it has even interrupted India's favorite sport of
cricket. This week the visiting Sri Lankan cricket team wore pollution masks
and the bowlers complained they were short of breath. Some players vomited.
Play was stopped several times on Sunday as match officials debated whether to
continue, eventually deciding they would.
The
Supreme Court will hear the government's oral arguments on easing the petcoke
ban next week. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions
In
a separate case in October, the Supreme Court imposed a token fine on the
environment ministry for not setting industrial emission standards for sulfur
dioxide and nitrogen oxide in New Delhi and the surrounding states. The
ministry has promised to comply with the court order by the end of the year.
Mehta,
the environmentalist, said that whatever action India takes, the U.S. should
impose its own measures by banning exports of petcoke.The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions
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