Emissions Successes a Big Win, But it's Not Over Yet

An earlier engines session at ATA's management conference featured a lively interchange between Jeffrey Holmstead, former assistant administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, and Jed Mandel, president of the Engine Manufacturers Association.

Holmstead said the Clean Air Act was an enormous success for EPA and for the nation, as the societal benefits far outweighed the costs, especially in the case of diesel particulates. His take on the situation is that EPA is now focused on the successful implementation of the 2010 limits and that there is "no appetite for further regulation of traditional emissions," leaving it open on the question of limits for CO2.

He did say, though, that there is considerable pressure, which will only increase, in non-attainment areas such as the Los Angeles South Coast Air Quality Management District. Holmstead said increasingly stringent air quality standards were simply impossible to meet, certainly within our lifetimes.

Mandel agreed that the go-it-alone state efforts to clean up emissions from the legacy fleet of older equipment would be a burden on all kinds of truck operators. And other initiatives like California's stringent OBD proposals - far stricter than the federal plan - make life next to impossible for manufacturer and user alike. He said that regulation goals need to be cost-effective and also must be perceived as cost-effective by the user. Otherwise the user won't buy new equipment but merely refurbish old. In such a case, the OEM could not recover the high costs of developing technologies to meet the mandates.

As for climate-change regulation, Holmstead says there is a shift as government realizes the enormous cost of regulating greenhouse gases. "The debate is going to be longer and more intense," and trucking is not necessarily a target in whatever will be next.

Mandel said trucking would be a target if fuel economy standards like passenger car CAF requirements were to be mandated, as has been suggested. It is complicated by the fact that three independent agencies are vying for the rights to dictate the standards. "NHTSA, EPA have a massive proposed ruling that will impact every aspect of our lives. And the California Air Resources Board is poised to file its own emissions fuel economy standard while mandating Smartway [specs]." Mandel was far less optimistic of the outcomes than Holmstead.