AAEA Supports Bush Administration

Reductions of Pollution From Off-Road Diesel Engines

Periodic Table

April 15, 2003.  The African American Environmentalist Association (AAEA) supports the Bush Administration’s plan to reduce emissions from off-road diesel engines used in construction, agricultural and industrial equipment.  This is the first time advanced emission control systems will be incorporated into off-road equipment.  The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that off-road diesel engines account for about 44 percent of diesel particulate matter (PM) and about 12 percent of nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions from mobile sources nationwide.

This rulemaking, combined with the 2007 diesel (on-road) rule for highway trucks and school bus retrofits will provide invaluable benefits to the public, particularly children, the elderly, asthmatics, and others with respiratory problems.  The proposal announced by EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman will take effect for new engines starting in 2008 and will be fully applicable by 2014.  The program will reduce PM (soot) and NOx by 90 percent when fully operational.  This will mean annual reductions of 825,000 tons of NOx and 125,000 tons of PM.  Sulfur content of diesel fuel will be reduced from 3400 parts per million (ppm) to 15 ppm in 2010 – a 99 percent reduction.

President Bush should be commended for supporting EPA's decision to issue health-based standards for on-road/off-road diesel fine particulate emissions.  When the rules were challenged by industry opponents, President Bush and EPA Administrator Whitman staunchly defended the program.  When challenged in court, the Supreme Court unanimously upheld EPA's action.   EPA has estimated that by 2030 the nonroad program will prevent over 9,600 premature deaths, 8,300 hospitalizations, 16,000 heart attacks, 5,700 children’s asthma-related emergency room visits, 260,000 respiratory problems in children and nearly a million work days lost due to illness.

EPA estimates the health and environmental benefits of the off-road program will be over $80 billion when fully implemented in 2030, while costing about $1.5 billion annually.  The estimated cost of producing and using 15-ppm low sulfur fuel will be approximately 4.8 cents per gallon.

Air Pollution Standards Upheld by U.S. Court

3-26-02 The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, in a 3 to 0 decision, upheld strong air pollution control standards proposed during the Clinton Administration.  The Appeals Court ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) did not exceed its authority in issuing new guidelines for ozone and particulates in 1997 regulations under the Clean Air Act. The court further affirmed that the new standards are neither arbitrary nor unreasonable. This could clear the way for the five-year-old rules to finally be implemented by a Bush administration that has questioned some of the tough environmental standards proposed by the Clinton administration. EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman supports the new regulations.

The Supreme Court voted 9 to 0 last year to reverse an earlier D.C. Circuit opinion that held that the EPA had overstepped its regulatory authority, and it then remanded the remaining issues back to the D.C. court. The court's decision yesterday emphatically cleared up those questions in favor of the EPA. The new particulate (soot) standards would prevent 15,000 premature deaths and 250,000 aggravated asthma cases each year. The tougher ozone rules would also protect 100 million Americans from the adverse effects of smog.

EPA will now designate the places that do not meet the new standards. After that it will require states to submit detailed compliance plans. Implementing the changes will be problematic. For instance, the District is not in compliance with EPA's existing standards, much less the new ones. Virginia was one of several states to file court briefs in support of industry's attempts to reject the changes and EPA stripped Maryland of its industrial pollution permit licensing authority last year.

The 1997 standards limited ozone, a major component of smog, to 0.08 parts per million instead of 0.12 parts per million under the old requirement. It also reduced the monitoring period from 12 hours to eight hours.  States and local authorities also were required to limit microscopic soot from power plants, cars and other sources down to 2.5 microns in diameter, or 28 times smaller than the width of a human hair, and must be limited to an annual primary standard of 15 microns per cubic meter.

7-24-2002 Republication lawmakers are pressing the Bush administration to postpone a tough new anti-pollution standard to sharply reduce health-threatening nitrogen oxide emissions from diesel engines for long-haul diesel trucks on behalf of Caterpillar Inc. of Peoria, Ill.  Caterpillar is facing millions of dollars in penalties because it can't meet the Oct. 1, 2002 deadline for compliance with the new standard.  Two other manufacturers, Cummins Inc. and Mack Trucks Inc., have developed engines for their trucks that satisfy the new standards.

EPA Administrator Christine Whitman listened to all the arguments and rejected  the request. EPA and Justice officials support the new rule as essential to protecting public health.    Caterpillar and Detroit Diesel Corp. have petitioned a federal court for a one-year delay in the new rule. 

The government found that the manufacturers  had circumvented clean-air regulations by using computerized "engine defeat devices," which met standards in laboratory tests but put out unlawfully high amounts of pollution during actual highway use. In October 1998, the EPA and Justice Department announced a settlement in which the engine makers agreed to pay a combined $83 million in fines and to move up a deadline for producing cleaner-burning engines from January 2004 to October 2002.  This important anti-pollution measure, which is designed to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions by a third or more, was worked out as part of a 1998 consent agreement between the Clinton administration and seven diesel truck manufacturers, including Caterpillar. Under the new rule, nitrogen oxide emissions, which cause acid rain and upper respiratory diseases, would be reduced by 1.2 million tons within the program's first year.

Caterpillar is trying to bypass the current smog-reducing technology with an "advanced combustion emission reduction" design that they say requires more time for testing.  Caterpillar has also questioned whether the new Cummins engines will meet the EPA standards under highway conditions and accused other long-haul trucking companies of rushing to buy current-year models to avoid the new and largely untested engines.

While the EPA originally estimated the new regulation would add less than $1,000 to the cost of each engine, the American Trucking Associations counters that it increases the price by $11,000 to $15,000 and trucking companies would also pay between $3,620 and $7,130 more for fuel over the life of the engine. EPA believes that Caterpillar is exaggerating the economic problems that the rule would cause.