US unveils major new proposal to cut vehicle emissions
Environmentalists and public health advocates are lauding a key, long-awaited proposal put forward by President Barack Obama’s administration that would require cleaner gasoline and more effective technologies on vehicles, cutting various harmful emissions by 40 to 80 percent. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which announced the long-delayed proposal here Friday, say the new regulations could avoid around 2,400 premature deaths and 23,000 cases of respiratory problems in children each year. A key component — lowering the sulphur content in gasoline by two-thirds — would be equivalent to taking some 33 million cars off the roadways, around one in eight.
April 4, 2013