Shen said the fee is collected by the agency from refiners to give them incentives to switch to higher quality oil supplies that emit less sulfur. The amounts saved from decreasing air pollution fees would enable the companies to invest in research for cleaner gas, he said.
He refuted earlier reports from EPA officials that the fee was collected from customers directly by the companies on behalf of the agency. He stressed that the amount was a direct fee, “on the company, not its customers.”
“We are not the middle man in this case ... we don’t care how it is collected, all we care about is that we receive the full figure we are owed,” Shen said.
He later deflected inquiries about whether the definition meant that the oil companies had been inappropriately passing the costs on to customers for years when the fee should have instead come from company coffers.
“This is not [the EPA’s] dispute. It’s not our problem. That is a question for the oil companies and the Energy Bureau,” Shen said.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY SHIH HSIU-CHUAN
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