The Bush Adminstration has made much of the fact that, after some wary examination, it finally supported new Clinton Administration EPA rules that require the trucking industry to switch to cleaner engines that will reduce diesel emissions by 2007.
But it's now turning out that it may be the taxpayers, rather than the trucking companies, who foot the bill for much of the cleanup.
Rep. Mac Collins (R-GA), long a champion of tax breaks to help trucking companies defray the costs of anti-pollution regulations, joined 18 GOP House members a few months ago in asking the General Accounting Office (GAO) to examine the new regulations.
Collins is also former owner of Collins Trucking Company, now run by his family, which still pays him $21,600 annually as an adviser. He is running for the Senate this year.
The GAO report on the diesel regulations, released March 11, "openly endorses recommendations truckers have been making for years and explicitly parrots the industry's arguments behind these recommendations," said Frank O'Donnell, executive director of the Clean Air Trust.[1]
Soon after the report was released, Jeffrey Holmstead, assistant EPA administrator for air and radiation, accompanied EPA Administrator Mike Leavitt to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to discuss the report's findings at a trucking industry meeting titled "Diesel Engine Emissions Summit II."
"I am prepared to say, 'Let's work together,'" Leavitt announced to a round of applause from the audience of more than 900 industry representatives. He assured the crowd that he was amenable to the idea of tax breaks to help trucking companies comply with the rules, saying it's the government's job to incentivize businesses "to do the right thing."
The EPA, though, does not typically ask taxpayers to shoulder the corporate costs of meeting new pollution standards. The health benefits of these regulations are supposed to justify their costs. If the financial burden is heavy for industry, the costs are passed along to consumers.
Environmentalists say the trucking industry's fears are grossly exaggerated. They also argue that taxpayers shouldn't be forced to underwrite the costs, no matter what they are; that would set a precedent for every other polluting industry to make the same demands.
Moreover, according to EPA research, an estimated 8,300 deaths from respiratory disease per year will be prevented by the cleaner diesel engines. In addition, the regulations will result in 17,600 fewer cases of acute bronchitis and 360,000 fewer asthma attacks in kids.
Still, Leavitt and Holmstead seem to see merit in abandoning the "polluter pays" principle. So concerned are they, in fact, that they've invited Mac Collins to help write legislation that will line his own financial coffers. At the industry meeting last month, Holmstead vowed to work with the Georgia politician to develop financial incentives to soften any blow to the trucking industry from the diesel regulations.
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SOURCES:
[1] GAO Report, Mar. 2004.
This story was jointly produced by BushGreenwatch and Grist Magazine. For more on this story, visit Grist Magazine.
