Bradley rails against policies that create ‘unequal sharing of the environmental and health burden’

OTTAWA (May 3, 2002) — The leader of the Canadian Truck Alliance said today that new regulations to control diesel engine emissions have put the trucking industry into a “Catch-22 situation” with regard to reducing greenhouse gases.

“The dramatic reduction in the truck health-related emissions will be accompanied by a fuel efficiency penalty,” David Bradley told the Ottawa Kiwanis Club. “The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that the new engine technologies designed to reduce the health-related emissions will also increase fuel consumption by between 2% and 4.5%. Given Canadian weather and the condition of our highways, the impact could be worse in Canada.”

The problem, according to Bradley, is two-fold:

First, improving fuel efficiency is the only solution to reducing GHG. Diesel fuel use produces two main greenhouse gases — carbon dioxide and methane — neither of which, according to Health Canada, directly cause air pollution. Second, the other freight transportation modes, like the railways, are not being required to introduce engines and fuel that reduces health-related emissions.

“With increasing fuel costs already causing havoc with industry cost structures, truckers already have a built in incentive to maximize fuel efficiency,” Bradley said. “But, the reality is that to eliminate the emissions that impair the health of our children and the elderly, we are being mandated by regulation to consume more fuel — and more expensive fuel at that. At the same time, there appears to be no desire by government to compel the other freight modes to clean up their act.”

Instead, Bradley is concerned that the federal government will “reward” the trucking industry for becoming ultra-clean from a health perspective by penalizing it for greenhouse gas emissions.

“It makes no sense from a health, an environmental, or an economic point of view that all modes not be required to be meet the same standards as the trucks. While some may hope that this unequal sharing of the environmental and health burden will shift freight from truck to rail, all that would mean is replacing a health sensitive mode with one that uses unhealthy fuel and engines,” Bradley said. “The federal government’s own studies confirm this outcome and also make it clear that modal shift is not an answer to the global warming phenomenon.”