EPA to Certify Engines for Sale, Caterpillar Says

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The Environmental Protection Agency gave Caterpillar conditional approval to sell its on-highway truck engines after the emissions deadline of Oct. 1, 2002, the company said Thursday.

Caterpillar said the certification allows the sale of Caterpillar engines through December 2002 in Canada and all states but California with no restrictions for customers purchasing the engines.

The EPA action is conditional upon final testing of production engines, Caterpillar said. Conditional approval is not the same kind of action as that won by Cummins Inc., which was found to have produced an engine in compliance with the emissions goals set for October 2002 by the EPA ahead of the deadline.

An EPA official told Transport Topics that Caterpillar would receive approval to sell its on-road engines pending a compliance audit by the agency during which it will be determined to what level the company’s engines exceed the 2.5-gram nitrogen oxide standard.

The audit is likely to result in a non-compliance penalty, which Caterpillar has said it will absorb.

With this EPA action, Caterpillar said it now expects the state of California to complete the certification of its engines by the California Air Resources Board.

The EPA informed Caterpillar that it will be unable to complete the necessary certification work before the federally mandated deadline of Oct. 1, 2002. However, the EPA indicated that it does not foresee any obstacles to full certification of all Caterpillar engine families. Therefore, Caterpillar said it fully expects to receive complete EPA certification in the near future.

The company press release said Caterpillar engines produced after Sep. 30, 2002 will be very similar to the company's current engines, but with some elements of Caterpillar's new Advanced Combustion Emissions Reduction Technology.

Click here for the full press release.)

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