Summer Gasoline Bill Passes Senate

From June to September, drivers in the Pittsburgh area are required to fill up their vehicles with a special blend of gasoline. The goal is to cut back on pollution levels during the hotter summer months. But the closure of Philadelphia-area refineries, combined with soaring gasoline prices, has the General Assembly primed to remove the mandate.
Earlier today, the state Senate approved a bill eliminating the summer blend requirement, as the Tribune-Review reports:

A bill to eliminate a special, and costly, summer-blend gasoline in the Pittsburgh region cleared the state Senate on Wednesday.
The proposal, which must be passed by the state House and signed by the governor before becoming law, would allow Pittsburgh-area motorists to use the same conventional gasoline burned year round in rest of the state, outside of Philadelphia.
“With fuel prices already rising, we need to get this legislation passed before the switch to summer gas,” said Sen. Elder Vogel, R-Beaver County and co-sponsor of the bill. “If we wait, the effects could be catastrophic to the folks in Western Pennsylvania.”

In January the paper published an article explaining the reasoning behind the summer blend requirements, and the arguments for eliminating the law.

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