"This legislation is a critical step toward improving public health and air quality across the nation," Meehan said. "It is good news for the environment and for drivers."

According to Meehan, current levels of sulfur in gasoline are too high.  Sulfur irreversibly damages a vehicle's catalytic converter, the device that cleans car exhaust of pollutants that cause smog and acid rain.  Air-quality problems can aggravate asthma and other chronic respiratory diseases, lower flu resistance, increase the risk of lung cancer, and are especially harmful to children and the elderly.

Lower sulfur gasoline will have an immediate impact by reducing emissions from cars on the road today.  S. William Becker, Director of the State and Territorial Air Pollution Program Administrators and the Association of Local Air Pollution Control Officials, said the cleaner, low-sulfur gasoline called for in the "Clean Gasoline Act of 1999" will achieve emissions reductions that are equivalent to taking almost 54 million vehicles off the road.

New fuel efficient technologies and sophisticated catalytic converters are extremely sensitive to sulfur contamination.  Low sulfur fuel is needed to gain the full benefits of these technologies. "Like other countries, the U.S. continues to build cleaner cars, such as the low emission vehicles that are required in the Northeast, but the fuel to run them on gas has not kept pace,"  Meehan said.  "The result is that we are not reaping the benefits of our current emissions control technology."

Japan, Canada and the European Union have already moved towards low-sulfur fuel.  While the European Union is targeting 50 parts per million (ppm) per gallon and Japan having already achieved 10 ppm, the United States is well behind with a national average of 345 ppm. California, the state with the strictest fuel standards to date, estimates over half the improvement in ozone pollution in 1996 was due to the introduction of cleaner burning gasoline. 

Experience both internationally and in California has demonstrated that low-sulfur gasoline has improved the long term quality of catalytic converters, and thereby the overall performance of cars, with limited economic impact on consumers.  Recent studies have show that a nationwide conversion to cleaner fuel will lead to an extremely small cost increase - about 1 or 2 cents per gallon - which is approximately $10 to $20 per year for the average motorist. 

According to a study by the American Lung Association, 91 percent of all Americans are willing to pay up to 3 cents more per gallon for cleaner gasoline and nearly 70 percent would pay a nickel more per gallon if it would produce significantly less pollution.

"For the price of a compact disc or two tickets to the movies, we can do something significant for the environment," said Congressman Meehan.  "Reducing most of the sulfur from gasoline will not only benefit our environment now, but will facilitate a transition to cleaner technologies in the future that will help us address the threat of global climate change.  It is a cost-effective, commonsense approach to dramatically clean our air, benefit public health, extend the life-span of our cars, and improve our quality of life."