White House Announces New Regulation for Diesel Engines

The Bush administration Monday announced a regulation that within a decade would cut 90% of the harmful pollution from construction equipment, farm equipment and other off-road diesel engines and 99% of the sulfur from the fuel they use.

“It’s a big moment in terms of clean air history,” Environmental Protection Agency administrator Mike Leavitt said. “That black puff of diesel smoke will be a thing of the past.”

The regulation is expected to prevent 12,000 premature deaths, 15,000 heart attacks and 6,000 asthma-related emergency room visits for children every year, according to the EPA.

Even many of the administration’s usual critics praised the regulation, which is expected to be signed today, as the best thing President Bush had done for the environment.

“This rule provides greater environmental benefits than any other decision this administration has made,” said S. William Becker, executive director of the State and Territorial Air Pollution Program Administrators and the Assn. of Local Air Pollution Control Officials.

After being attacked for adopting policies described by environmental groups as too friendly to industries, the administration experienced a rare day of praise from those same organizations.

“By working together effectively with both industry and environmentalists, EPA has developed these strong pollution rules that will help protect the millions of Americans suffering from asthma and all Americans that are hard hit by the pollution from diesel exhaust,” said Fred Krupp, president of Environmental Defense, a national environmental organization.

Almost as striking as the support from environmentalists were the comments from the industries that would be subject to the aggressive new regulation.

“The diesel industry is committed to being part of the clean air solution,” said Allen Schaeffer, executive director of the Diesel Technology Forum, which represents diesel refiners and engine manufacturers.

In California, where such diesel engines are among the biggest polluters and have been off limits to state regulators, the change should lead to cleaner air.

“For California, this is a huge breath of fresh air,” said Jerry Martin, spokesman for the California Air Resources Board.

The regulation is similar to one adopted by the Clinton administration and approved by the Bush administration to drastically cut emissions from diesel trucks and buses.

Diesel exhaust is particularly harmful because it is linked to lung cancer and other ailments, mostly affecting the respiratory system.

The regulation would require the removal of 99% of the sulfur in the diesel fuel for off-road engines; it also would require controls on those engines to remove other pollutants, such as smog-forming nitrogen oxide. About 650,000 such engines are sold every year in backhoes, tractors, heavy forklifts, airport service vehicles and generators.

Nationwide, these engines are responsible for 60% of the total diesel particulate-matter pollution and 30% of the nitrogen oxide emitted from all mobile sources of pollution, which also include cars, trucks, buses and airplanes. People exposed to high levels of smog, the common name for ground-level ozone, can suffer from aggravated asthma, reduced lung function and chronic lung diseases.

Particulates contribute to haze and cause serious health problems, including premature deaths, heart and lung ailments and aggravated asthma.

The fuel would be cleaned up in two stages -- first from its uncontrolled level of 3,400 parts of sulfur per million to 500 parts per million by 2007, then to 15 parts per million by 2010.

The regulation also requires diesel locomotives and commercial marine vessels, such as tugboats and river barges, to start using the cleaner fuel, but it gives them two more years to meet the goal of 15 parts per million.

The regulation does not require pollution controls on locomotives and marine vessels, but the EPA says it plans to propose additional regulations that would require these vessels to become cleaner, perhaps as early as 2011.

Depending on the type of engine, manufacturers will be required to start selling engines with pollution controls as early as 2008. All the engines will have to comply with the new requirements by 2014. By 2030, the EPA predicted, all the engines in use will be the new clean engines.

The regulation announced Monday also would help communities meet new, more stringent health-based standards for smog and fine particulates.

More than half the U.S. population, including 90% of Californians, live in areas with unhealthful levels of smog, according to the EPA’s new standard, which was set last month. About 65 million Americans live in areas with unhealthful levels of particulates.

Representatives from both environmental groups and industry said the rule was a rare one that made everyone happy because the administration involved a broad coalition.

“From the beginning, this rule was worked on together, collaboratively, with a wide range of stakeholders,” Schaeffer said.

The refining industry adjusted to the regulation because the Bush administration agreed to a two-stage cleanup.

“We know there’s an inexorable march to cleaner and cleaner fuels,” said Charles Drevna, director of advocacy for the National Petrochemical and Refiners Assn. “Our problem was in timing and scope.”

Environmental and health advocates were pleased because the final goal was so stringent.

The administration has not followed a collaborative approach on other regulations that have been the subject of great criticism from environmental and health advocates, such as one regulating mercury emissions from power plants and another that gives polluters greater leeway to renovate their old plants without installing modern pollution controls.

“It’s quite remarkable that these strong rules come from the same administration that has otherwise rolled back the clock on 30 years of environmental progress,” said Emily Figdor, a clean air advocate for Environment California.

*

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Cleaning the air

Off-road diesel engines are major sources of air pollution, releasing smog-forming nitrogen oxides and particulate matter into the air. When inhaled, the particles can cause or worsen a variety of health problems.

Particulate matter* from vehicles in the U.S., in thousands of tons: Total particulate matter 571.9 From highway vehicles 241.7 From off-road equipment and vehicles 330.2 From off-road diesel engines 255.3 Reduction as a result of new regulation 129.0

Nitrogen oxide from vehicles in the U.S., in millions of tons: Total nitrogen oxides 12.62 From highway vehicles 8.37 From off-road equipment and vehicles 4.25 From off-road diesel engines 3.71 Reduction as a result of new regulation 0.74

*Measuring less than or equal to 10 microns in diameter Figures are for 1999, the most recent available Source: Union of Concerned Scientists