EPA Should Call Off The Witch Hunt
DOUG CONDRA
EDITORIAL DIRECTOR/PUBLISHER
As if trucking isn't struggling enough to sail out of its perfect economic storm, the federal Environmental Protection Agency has come up with some more thunder and lightening.
The agency is reportedly investigating U.S. engine manufacturers on suspicions that they have sinned further. Their crime, should it be proven: encouraging carriers to buy new trucks before October 1, when heavy duty diesels are required to have lower-emission engines.
Such encouragement would violate the 1998 consent decree signed by the engine makers. It forbids them from attempting to influence their customers to pre-buy trucks to avoid the new engines for awhile.
According to the Chicago Tribune, EPA has asked engine builders if they have taken any action to encourage pre-buying, and has requested "extensive documentation in the form of copies of written communication with customers and similar information."
Supposedly, EPA got reports from "some" engine manufacturers that "other" engine manufacturers might be offering "extraordinary incentives" on pre-October diesels. EPA charged in on its big white (or green, as it were) horse to save the day.
But what's to save? It's already too late to order a pre-October truck; dealer stocks are the only place to go now.
And is any engine manufacturer going to step up and admit to violating the consent decree? Will there be panicky paper-shredding, Enron-style, among the engine builders? We think not.
Several of us from this magazine's staff attended numerous spring meetings where engine builders and truck manufacturers mingled with fleet executives. At every event the emissions situation and pre-buying were discussed at length, both publicly and privately. None of us has heard any manufacturer — even in private conversations — encourage any truck owner to pre-buy.
If anything, engine manufacturers have been reluctant to talk about pre-buying. Part of that is because of the consent decree, no doubt. But part of it is also because a big pre-buy could mean a collapse in truck sales after October. That could stall a smooth economic recovery for the industry, and nobody wants that.
Fleet execs we've spoken with say they have not been contacted by engine companies about pre-buying. They also tell us that they make their own buying decisions.
We fail to see where anything is to be gained by EPA's zeal to further punish engine builders. The marketplace will decide, and that is how it should be.
EPA should drop its witch hunt and let us get on with the recovery.
