The No-Lead Era

Along with such conventional labels as regular and premium, a third sign is popping up at U.S. gasoline stations: unleaded. Until recently, unleaded gas has been available only in small amounts. By order of the Environmental Protection Agency, however, it must be offered after July 1 by all stations pumping 200,000 or more gallons annually--about half of the 220,000 gas stations in the nation. The unleaded era will be one of added expense for many drivers, and it is opening amid considerable controversy.

The new fuel can be used in any car with a low-compression engine not requiring the antiknock properties of leaded gas. But it will be indispensable in all but a few 1975-model cars. The great majority of those cars will be fitted with catalytic converters that change noxious exhaust fumes to harmless gases. The lead in ordinary gasoline fouls the converters. Indeed, as little as two tanks of leaded gas will "poison" a converter; to replace it could cost the motorist up to $150. So automakers will equip their 1975 models with smaller-than-usual filler pipes leading into the gas tanks. Conventional gasoline nozzles will not fit into them; only special, smaller nozzles used to dispense unleaded gas will go inside.

The fuel will cost drivers 2-c- or 3-c- per gal. more than leaded regular gas, and General Motors executives, in a rare difference of opinion with the oil industry, have questioned whether the price premium is necessary (oil chiefs say that refining costs make it so). The American Automobile Association, traditionally supersensitive to anything that could inconvenience motorists, worries that owners of 1975 cars in many rural areas will have to drive long distances before coming across a station big enough to be selling unleaded gas. AAA officials also fear that many stations that do carry the new fuel will not get the small nozzles required to dispense it in time: only three companies are making the nozzles, and one has been struck recently.

No Third Pump. Federal officials concede that the changeover to unleaded gas may create some minor problems. The environmental agency will require an additional 10,000 stations in sparsely populated areas to offer unleaded fuel, and predicts that most smaller outlets for major oil companies will take on the new gas voluntarily. Altogether, the EPA estimates that in only 41 of the nation's 3,000-odd counties will motorists have to drive more than a few miles to find unleaded gas. Agency officials also note that 300,000 small nozzles have already been produced and are in wide distribution. In a pinch, any stations that cannot get the small nozzles can pump the new fuel through standard nozzles and a funnel into 1975 cars. That leaves one further problem: Many gas stations that have only two pumps will not add a third to dispense unleaded, but will drop premium gas in favor of the new fuel. So drivers of some high-powered older cars built to run on premium gas may have to look around a bit to find the high-octane fuel.

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