diff --git a/premailer/premailer.py b/premailer/premailer.py
index 293b8d3..2addeaf 100644
--- a/premailer/premailer.py
+++ b/premailer/premailer.py
@@ -1,8 +1,5 @@
 from __future__ import absolute_import, unicode_literals, print_function
-from io import BytesIO  # Yes, there is an io module in Python 2
-import cgi
 import codecs
-import gzip
 import operator
 import os
 import re
@@ -16,7 +13,6 @@ import sys
 if sys.version_info >= (3,):  # pragma: no cover
     # As in, Python 3
     from io import StringIO
-    from urllib.request import urlopen
     from urllib.parse import urljoin, urlparse
     STR_TYPE = str
 else:  # Python 2
@@ -25,11 +21,11 @@ else:  # Python 2
     except ImportError:  # pragma: no cover
         from StringIO import StringIO
         StringIO = StringIO  # shut up pyflakes
-    from urllib2 import urlopen
     from urlparse import urljoin, urlparse
     STR_TYPE = basestring  # NOQA
 
 import cssutils
+import requests
 from lxml import etree
 from lxml.cssselect import CSSSelector
 from premailer.merge_style import merge_styles, csstext_to_pairs
@@ -473,16 +469,7 @@ class Premailer(object):
             return out
 
     def _load_external_url(self, url):
-        r = urlopen(url)
-        _, params = cgi.parse_header(r.headers.get('Content-Type', ''))
-        encoding = params.get('charset', 'utf-8')
-        if 'gzip' in r.info().get('Content-Encoding', ''):
-            buf = BytesIO(r.read())
-            f = gzip.GzipFile(fileobj=buf)
-            out = f.read().decode(encoding)
-        else:
-            out = r.read().decode(encoding)
-        return out
+        return requests.get(url).text
 
     def _load_external(self, url):
         """loads an external stylesheet from a remote url or local path
diff --git a/premailer/tests/test_premailer.py b/premailer/tests/test_premailer.py
index 271b5bc..69f5bdb 100644
--- a/premailer/tests/test_premailer.py
+++ b/premailer/tests/test_premailer.py
@@ -9,8 +9,7 @@ if sys.version_info >= (3, ):  # As in, Python 3
 else:  # Python 2
     from urllib2 import urlopen
     urlopen = urlopen  # shut up pyflakes
-from io import BytesIO, StringIO  # Yes, the is an io lib in py2.x
-import gzip
+from io import StringIO  # Yes, the is an io lib in py2.x
 
 from nose.tools import eq_, ok_, assert_raises
 import mock
@@ -53,31 +52,10 @@ def provide_input(content):
         sys.stdin = StringIO(content)
 
 
-class MockResponse:
+class MockResponse(object):
 
-    def __init__(self, content, gzip=False):
-        self.content = content
-        self.headers = {}
-        self.gzip = gzip
-
-    def info(self):
-        if self.gzip:
-            return {'Content-Encoding': 'gzip'}
-        else:
-            return {}
-
-    def read(self):
-        if self.gzip:
-            out = BytesIO()
-            # If we didn't have to support python 2.6 we could instead do:
-            #   with gzip.GzipFile(fileobj=out, mode="w") as f:
-            #       ...
-            f = gzip.GzipFile(fileobj=out, mode="w")
-            f.write(self.content)
-            f.close()
-            return out.getvalue()
-        else:
-            return self.content
+    def __init__(self, content):
+        self.text = content
 
 
 def compare_html(one, two):
@@ -1768,29 +1746,17 @@ ent:"" !important;display:block !important}
 
         compare_html(expect_html, result_html)
 
-    @mock.patch('premailer.premailer.urlopen')
-    def test_load_external_url(self, mocked_url_open):
+    @mock.patch('premailer.premailer.requests')
+    def test_load_external_url(self, mocked_requests):
         'Test premailer.premailer.Premailer._load_external_url'
-        faux_response = b'This is not a response'
+        faux_response = 'This is not a response'
         faux_uri = 'https://example.com/site.css'
-        mocked_url_open.return_value = MockResponse(faux_response)
+        mocked_requests.get.return_value = MockResponse(faux_response)
         p = premailer.premailer.Premailer('<p>A paragraph</p>')
         r = p._load_external_url(faux_uri)
 
-        mocked_url_open.assert_called_once_with(faux_uri)
-        eq_(faux_response.decode('utf-8'), r)
-
-    @mock.patch('premailer.premailer.urlopen')
-    def test_load_external_url_gzip(self, mocked_url_open):
-        'Test premailer.premailer.Premailer._load_external_url with gzip'
-        faux_response = b'This is not a response'
-        faux_uri = 'http://example.com/site.css'
-        mocked_url_open.return_value = MockResponse(faux_response, True)
-        p = premailer.premailer.Premailer('<p>A paragraph</p>')
-        r = p._load_external_url(faux_uri)
-
-        mocked_url_open.assert_called_once_with(faux_uri)
-        eq_(faux_response.decode('utf-8'), r)
+        mocked_requests.get.assert_called_once_with(faux_uri)
+        eq_(faux_response, r)
 
     def test_css_text(self):
         """Test handling css_text passed as a string"""
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index ec19d69..abad1b9 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -32,6 +32,7 @@ install_requires = [
     'lxml',
     'cssselect',
     'cssutils',
+    'requests',
 ]
 if sys.version_info >= (2, 6) and sys.version_info <= (2, 7):
     # Python 2.6 is the oldest version we support and it