States may adopt own engine emission standards

WASHINGTON, (Feb. 2, 2004) — Worried that new 2007 EPA diesel engine emission limits will be delayed or watered down, several states have announced they’re prepared to proceed with their own tightened heavy truck and bus emission rules.

State air pollution officials say they are taking pre-emptive action by adopting California’s stringent emission limits because they worry the federal government will cave to trucking and business interests that want to see the EPA rules — which plan to reduce emissions more than 90 percent by 2010 — weakened or delayed.

Some House members have already asked for an audit of how the rules were made and their possible impacts on industry.

“We are moving ahead with this action to provide absolute certainty that these standards take effect on time,” Bill Becker, director of a pair of Washington-based trade groups for state and local air pollution control officials, was quoted as saying by Associated Press. “I would expect dozens of states to pursue the adoption of California standards.”

The pollution controllers wrote the American Trucking Associations last week with word that they plan to “work with states … to opt into California’s highway diesel emission standards — the strictest in the country — for 2007.

Federal law permits states either to follow the EPA tailpipe standards or to adopt California motor vehicle standards because they are at least as tough. California’s requirements are almost identical to the new ones from the EPA, calling for more than 90 per cent reductions in smog-forming nitrogen oxides and particulate soot.

— from Associated Press