EPA Seeks Same Rules for Light Trucks
Following California’s lead, the Environmental Protection Agency will propose a set of tough rules that would require light trucks and sport-utility vehicles for the first time to meet the same stringent emission standards as cars, according to the Washington Post.
The proposed rules also would require oil companies to produce cleaner gasoline. Both changes would take effect starting in 2004.
The California Air Resources Board adopted similar measures in November, with the same effective date.
The new rules are designed to create huge improvements in air quality, according to environmentalists. Cleaner gasoline alone should be the equivalent of taking 54 million cars off the road, said William Becker, executive director of a national association of state and local air pollution officials. The EPA proposals, if adopted, could also reduce acid rain and diminish the amounts of harmful toxins and particulates in the air.
The rules also are expected to increase gasoline and vehicle costs. The Air Resources Board estimated the average additional cost at $107 per vehicle, though the charge for consumers could prove far higher on certain types of vehicles.
That, in turn, could gradually change the mix of vehicles on the nation’s roads, which in recent years have become crowded with smog-producing, fuel-thirsty trucks.
Light trucks--pickups, vans, minivans and sport-utility models--now account for 47.5% of all new vehicles sold in the United States. As a group, their average fuel consumption is 20.7 miles per gallon, compared with an average 27.5 for passenger cars.
The proposed requirements have been the source of fierce battles between the automobile and oil industries. The final draft of the document is supposed to be sent to the Office of Management and Budget for review on Friday, but the EPA has begun briefing people on its general contents.
An auto industry executive said Wednesday that in some respects the proposal goes too far. But “the industry would like very much to be positive in this thing,” he said. He said the industry would try to push back some of the target dates for reducing tailpipe emissions and that it would also argue that some targets are too strict.
William F. O’Keefe, executive vice president of the American Petroleum Institute, which represents the oil companies, said the EPA proposals to reduce the sulfur content in gasoline could increase the cost of gasoline by as much as 5 to 6 cents a gallon and would require hard-pressed refiners to spend $5 billion to $6 billion to retool. Some refiners may be forced to shut down and others may choose not to make the investment, producing gasoline only for export, he said.
The EPA proposal would require a nationwide average for sulfur in gasoline of 30 parts per million, phased in from 2004 through 2006. The nationwide average is now more than 10 times that level, or about 330 parts per million. The car makers had sought lower levels of sulfur in gasoline because sulfur clogs the honeycombs in catalytic converters and limits their ability to reduce pollution.
The proposed rules also aim to reduce emissions of nitrogen oxides, which contribute to smog. The current standard for emissions of nitrogen oxides from passenger cars limits them to 0.4 grams per mile, but in the Northeast beginning this year the standard becomes 0.2 grams. That standard will apply nationally by 2001.
