Landmark controls on diesel emissions, finalized recently by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, are expected to prevent 12,000 premature deaths and 15,000 heart attacks each year.
The regulation, in stark contrast to the Bush administration's otherwise retrograde actions on clean air, regulates "non-road" diesel-powered equipment such as bulldozers, forklifts, tractors and generators -- sources responsible for a surprising 60 percent of all diesel particulate matter, a suspected carcinogen.
The regulations require manufacturers to build 90 percent cleaner diesel engines for these non-road machines, and call for a 99 percent reduction of the sulfur content in the diesel fuel that will power the updated engines.
"The EPA staff have been phenomenal on this issue," said Richard Kassel, a Natural Resources Defense Council senior attorney who helped the agency draft the regulations. "They went out of their way to give us as much of a voice in this regulatory process as they did industry. This will be remembered as an historic victory for clean air."
According to a U.S. PIRG analysis, the new rule did not escape last-minute concessions to the oil industry. The rule delays cleaning up the diesel fuel used in trains, boats and ships until 2012—two years later than all the other non-road fuel. A recent study by air pollution officials in the Northeast found very high levels of fine particle soot on train platforms and in train waiting rooms. Many of the 150,000 Americans who commented on the diesel proposal asked EPA to clean up marine and locomotive diesel fuel on the same timeline as other non-road diesel fuel. [1]
"After oil industry lobbying, the Bush administration chose to put off until 2012 what should be done today to protect our health," said U.S. Public Interest Research Group Clean Air Advocate Emily Figdor.
From an industry standpoint it is also valid that the economics justify supporting the rule. Industry fought the Clinton administration's Highway Diesel Rule tooth and nail; among other tactics, it filed a lawsuit and tried to get the rule thrown out. But as soon as industry lost that suit in May 2002 and Bush's Office of Management and Budget sanctioned the rules, industry withdrew its efforts.
"Many of the manufacturers were already investing in this technology for their trucks and buses, so expanding that effort to their non-road fleet has economics of scale that make it worthwhile," said Kassel.
On the political side, the Bush Administration has listed this non-road diesel program as one of its leading environmental achievements on its campaign website for over a month -- well before it became official.
The Bush Administration remains under heavy attack by environmentalists, however, for many other actions involving air pollution. It reversed its campaign pledge to support a mandatory cap on power plant emissions of carbon dioxide; turned back efforts to revive coal-fired power plants to install clean new technology when they expand their capacity; proposed delaying mercury protections by at least another 10 years; and proposed deferring visibility improvements in national parks for another 15 years, among various other harmful actions.
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This story was jointly produced by BushGreenwatch and Grist Magazine. For more on this story, visit Grist Magazine.
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SOURCES:
[1] US PIRG press release, May 10, 2004.
