A group of Democratic senators asked President Barack Obama to push new rules for gasoline.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) sent a letter to the president on Nov. 29, in which she said, “We are writing to strongly urge you to take an important step to improve human health and stimulate job creation by proposing the so-called Tier 3 emission and fuel standards in 2012 and adopting them promptly thereafter. The health benefits associated with the Tier 3 proposal are well established.”
Lowering emissions would reduce premature deaths from heart attacks, asthma, and other lung ailments, according to the letter.
“A recent study by Navigant Economics stated that these health benefits have an estimated value of $5–$6 billion annually by 2020 and $10–$11 billion annually by 2030,” reads the letter. Navigant Economics is an economic consulting firm.
Gillibrand is a member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.
Soon-to-retire Independent Sen. Joe Lieberman (Conn.) signed the letter along with 11 Democratic senators: Patty Murray (Wash.), Ben Cardin (Md.), Dick Durbin (Ill.), Frank Lautenberg (N.J.), Robert Menendez (N.J.), Jeff Merkley (Ore.), Charles Schumer (N.Y.), Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.), Richard Blumenthal (Conn.), John Kerry (Mass.), and Sherrod Brown (Ohio).
A formal proposal for Tier 3 standards would most likely ask producers to lower the sulfur content in fuel to 10 parts per million. It would require new catalytic converters on vehicles.
