Emission Wars
Bush to congress: Engine deadline will stand.
OLIVER B. PATTON
WASHINGTON EDITOR
The Bush administration is adamant that it will not delay the October deadline for cleaner diesel engines, despite intense pressure from industry and Congress.
The Environmental Protection Agency told Congress it was not going to back down, and the White House signaled its support for the agency.
Trucking industry concerns about the emissions requirements are "based largely on a misunderstanding" of the agreement between the government and engine manufacturers, said EPA chief Christine Todd Whitman.
"Although the (consent) decrees will increase the cost of heavy-duty diesel trucks - at least temporarily - these price increases are relatively minor and primarily due to the regulatory standard change and not to the acceleration of the more stringent standard," Whitman said.
In any event, EPA does not have the authority to extend the deadline. The consent decrees are binding legal orders that can only be altered by the court - and that is not likely to happen unless all the parties agree, she said.
Whitman took issue with trucking industry claims that the new engines are not adequately tested in the field. Several fleets are testing the engines and have reported to EPA that they do not have reliability concerns, she said.
Whitman was writing to Rep. Ray LaHood, R-Ill., and a group of congressmen who had asked her to delay the deadline.
In a related development, the White House came down on the side of EPA. A story in The Washington Post quoted an unnamed official of the White House Office of Management and Budget, saying that "moving forward is the right thing to do."
In her letter to LaHood, Whitman contested industry assertions of additional costs for the new engines. She said engine manufacturers are not likely to pass this full cost along to truck buyers - "The actual per engine price increase will be in the range of $3,000 to $3,500."
Whitman also contested trucking industry estimates of $15,000 in penalties for engines that exceed the October standard. She said the per-engine penalty is more likely to be $4,000 to $5,000.
The actual penalties for heavy-duty engines will range from $3,640 to $12,210, based on the amount of pollution produced. The penalties start when the engine exceeds 2.5 grams of hydrocarbon and nitrogen oxide, and increase as the emissions increase (see chart).
The penalties, which EPA posted in early August, are slightly lower than the ones it proposed earlier this year.
While EPA expects that some trucking companies are "pre-buying" trucks in order to avoid the more expensive, compliant engines, the extent of the pre-buying is not clear. "A major pre-buy has not yet occurred - at least through May of this year," Whitman said.
This assertion is at odds with what truck manufacturers are reporting. According to Mark C. Pigott, chairman and chief executive officer of Paccar, orders are way up.
"Industry heavy-duty truck net orders in North America surged nearly 75% in the first half of 2002 compared to the first half of 2001," Pigott said. Most of the increase is due to pre-buying, and builders are worried that there will be a falloff in sales in the fourth period, he said.
Meanwhile, industry interests are pursuing possible legislative remedies. Sources on Capital Hill say legislators may try to use the appropriations process to keep EPA from enforcing the non-compliance penalties. Also, there has been discussion of providing a tax credit to engine manufacturers to ease the burden of the penalties, and there is a proposal to prohibit engine makers from passing along penalties to truck buyers.
And on the legal front, Caterpillar and Detroit Diesel Corp. are trying an end-run around EPA, asking the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to intervene and give them more time.
| Penalty Rates At Several Emission Levels1 |
|---|
NHMC+Nox
Compliance Level
(g/bhp-hr)2 |
HEAVY-DUTY SERVICE CLASS |
| Light |
Medium |
Heavy |
Urban Bus |
| 2.5 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| 3.0 | $1,262 | $910 | $3,640 | $2,470 |
| 3.5 | $1,745 | $1,820 | $6,946 | $4,393 |
| 4.0 | $2,227 | $2,716 | $7,999 | $5,527 |
| 4.5 | $2,710 | $4,930 | $9,052 | $6,660 |
| 6.0 | N/A3 | N/A3 | $12,210 | N/A3 |
1. The penalties are for exceeding the 2.5 gram per brake horsepower-hour NMHC+NOx standard. They are expressed in 2001 dollars and are for the first year of non-compliance (the penalties increase with subsequent years).
2. g/bhp-hr = grams per brake horsepower-hour.
3. For the light and medium heavy-duty service classes and for urban buses, the upper limit is established at 4.5 g/bhp-hr, therefore no NCPs are applicable to emissions at 6.0 g/bhp-hr. For the heavy heavy-duty diesel engine service class, the upper limit is set at 6.0 g/bhp-hr.
Sidebar
Engine Makers Prepare For Oct. 1 While Fleets Remain Skittish
