The Environmental Protection Agency plans to require oil companies to reduce the amount of highly polluting sulfur in gasoline to one-tenth the current level, but the oil industry is lobbying to keep high-sulfur gas in Western states. EDF, automobile manufacturers, and a broad coalition of citizen and health groups are opposing the industry's efforts. EDF and the coalition it helped spearhead have called on the governors of Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, North Dakota, Nebraska, New Mexico, Nevada, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming to support EPA's requirement for low-sulfur fuel.

The Association of State and Local Air Pollution Control Officials estimates that, if oil companies were required to meet low-sulfur fuel standards, it would be comparable to eliminating hundreds of thousands of vehicles from Western roads. It would cost-effectively eliminate more than 115,000 tons of smog-forming pollutants and more than 11,000 tons of fine particulate matter that threatens human health and scenic vistas.

"Low-sulfur fuel and the new clean vehicle technology work hand-in-glove," said Vickie Patton, attorney with EDF's Rocky Mountain office. "The oil companies claim that the West does not need low-sulfur fuel and that EPA should not require it. However, low-sulfur fuel will help clean up the infamous brown clouds over cities in the West and Southwest and protect the spectacular vistas in our national parks."