Editorial: Moving Forward on the Next Generation of Engines
t first, it looked as if the Environmental Protection Agency would discourage heavy-duty diesel engine manufacturers from adopting one technology over another in achieving the next big reduction in exhaust emissions, due by 2007.
In an apparent attempt to put that concern to rest, EPA recently stated that it intends to be neutral on the choice of technology, in effect suggesting that the manufacturers were free to make their own decisions on how to meet the tough new engine standards.
However, comments from three of the major engine makers at a panel discussion last week showed that the companies still aren’t convinced that they are out of the regulatory restraints just yet.
Detroit Diesel’s Tim Tindall said his company needs to know by the middle of this year which way to go in designing engines that can be put on the market in 2007.
Cummins’s Michael D. Breeden said his company needs to determine its path by year’s end, while Bob Wessels of Caterpillar said his company could wait until “sometime in 2004.”
EPA can clear up any lingering doubts by formally stating its position on emissions technology and doing it now.
In 2002, we all saw what happens when there’s not enough time for fleets to test new engines before they’re asked to buy them. No one wants to weather another massive “pre-buy” of existing equipment in order to avoid the cleaner — but unproven — engines of the next generation.
The chaos that grew out of the struggle to get truck operators to accept the reduced-emissions engines mandated for the market by Oct. 1 was harmful to all parties. Preventing a repeat of that turmoil in getting ready for the next deadline — less than four years hence — is the primary reason Transport Topics and the Technology & Maintenance Council are co-hosting the Diesel Engine Emissions Summit in Phoenix on June 10.
The only way to prevent a recurrence of the fiasco of last fall is to ensure that fleets have a chance to test the 2007 engines before they are required to buy them. And the only way for that to happen is for EPA to tell engine makers what the rules are going to be, and to tell them now.
This story appeared in the May 5 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.
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