Senator: Tighter fuel standards needed

• Tweet

WASHINGTON, Nov. 30 (UPI) -- U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand called on the White House to do more to curb passenger vehicles emissions in a way she said wouldn't increase gasoline prices.

Gillibrand, D-N.Y., a member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, called on the White House to implement third-tier emission standards for cars and light-duty vehicles.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said a 2010 presidential memorandum called for a review of Tier 3 rules that would establish tighter standards for vehicles "including tailpipe emissions standards for oxides of nitrogen and air toxics and sulfur standards for gasoline."

Gillibrand said technology needed to meet any new requirements would add less than $150 to the price of a new vehicle "and would have practically no effect on the cost of gasoline."

A March report prepared for the American Petroleum Institute stated that Tier 3 regulations would increase compliance costs for refiners by nearly $10 billion. API this week filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia challenging an increase for the biodiesel mandate for 2013. The EPA this year called for a 28 percent increase year-on-year for biodiesel.