Smell The Fresh Air
It's time to stop acting like Chicken Little. The sky isn't falling.
DEBORAH WHISTLER
EDITOR
As journalists, we're used to being put in the middle of things. It gets especially dicey with issues that bring our readers in direct conflict with one another. Such is the case with the controversy over the new emissions regulations.
We have been torn over how shrill to sound the alarm to readers about potential problems with the new engines. But issues raised by EPA's stepped-up emissions schedule were clearly a cause for concern. They called for open debate and detailed explanation in our pages.
But whatever problems the new exhaust gas recirculation engines may pose, it's time for us to all wake up and smell the coffee - or in this case, the fresh air. The new emissions regulations are a done deal.
In just a couple weeks, the new lower emissions engines will be the only thing you will be able to spec in your trucks. The only way to still buy the old technology will be to buy used - which many of you may choose to do.
But let's face reality. Eventually, you will have to buy trucks with the cleaner engines. Which technology you choose is up to you. But eventually, you will have to buy an engine with either EGR or ACERT.
George Dubya has made it clear he won't intercede on this one. Which was really a no-brainer. No one of sound mind could have really expected to have the EPA's regs thwarted in these final hours. Especially considering no one stepped up to the plate and got behind the equipment manufacturers when they could have really made a difference - which was a couple of years ago when the EPA first started bashing engine builders for their defeat devices.
By the time the industry started taking action, it was much too late to stop this ball from rolling. Despite their recent attempts at intervention, the folks at ATA really didn't expect to turn the tide on the EPA's 2002 engine edict. Insiders tell me their efforts were really only in hope of getting a little more understanding from the government when the next rounds of even stricter emissions requirements come around in 2007 and 2010.
I heard through the grapevine that even ATA's lobbyists were embarrassed to push for legislative relief on this issue. The industry was far more than a day late. And being perceived as lobbying to hamper efforts to protect the environment is not exactly a position you want to be in - especially less than 90 days before the regulation is due to go into effect. And especially when the engine manufacturers have repeatedly assured us they will be able to meet this emissions hurdle, just as they have met all of them in the past.
"It's awful," says Lud Koci, CEO at Detroit Diesel. "It makes the whole industry look belittled in front of the very people we want to impress."
Koci believes the problems with the new engines have been blown out of proportion. We need to keep historical perspective, he says. Every time the engine builders have been forced into new technology by EPA in the past, the results have benefitted not only the environment, but the operations of the folks who buy and operate the new technology. That will be the case this time around, he assures us, although it hasn't been easy.
"It was not a good situation," Koci concedes. "We had much too limited time. It's a tough emissions level to meet. We didn't have the opportunity for fleets to get the experience they wanted with the technology."
Nonetheless, he adds, "We need to make the best of a bad situation." And that, he says, engine builders have done. For example, DDC's EGR engine is 25 pounds lighter and has 73% better ring wear, Koci says. All this while maintaining the same oil change intervals, warranty and PM intervals of pre-October engines. The only negative, he says, is fuel economy with EGR. But it's "close" to the current engines, and "we will continue to improve it."
"We need to move forward," Koci adds. "Quit acting like Chicken Little saying the sky is falling. It didn't fall with any of the other emissions hurdles."
We will continue to write about this issue to help provide solutions to any problems that arise.
But we agree with Koci: Look up, it's still there.
