TT, TMC to Host Summit On Fuel, Emissions Rules
img src="/sites/default/files/images/articles/printeditiontag_new.gif" width=120 align=right>Transport Topics Publishing Group and the Technology & Maintenance Council will host a national meeting of trucking industry executives in June to discuss the revolutionary changes in U.S. emissions and fuel standards that take effect later this decade.
The meeting, to be called the Diesel Engine Emissions Summit, will be held June 10 in conjunction with TMC’s annual summer meeting in Phoenix, which will run June 9-12.
The all-day summit will include six panels of industry leaders, ranging from fleets to truck and engine makers, fuel and lubricant producers and regulators — all of which will be followed by question-and-answer sessions between panelists and attendees.
“The new engine and fuel rules will have a profound impact on this industry, and we all need to be prepared,” he said.
The summit sponsors are TMC, Transport Topics newspaper and Light & Medium Truck, a TTPG monthly magazine.
TMC and TTPG are divisions of of American Trucking Associations
The Environmental Protection Agency has mandated that ultra-low-sulfur fuel be introduced nationally in the 2006 model year.
EPA will also require heavy-duty diesel engine makers to begin introducing a new generation of low-polluting engines for the 2007 model year.
By 2010, all new heavy-duty trucks made in the United States will have to contain the new engines.
“The trucking industry and its suppliers face revolutionary changes in diesel engines, and the fuel they burn, because of tougher emissions standards, but it’s not clear how they’re going to get there,” Abramson said.
“The next round of emissions rules will require a much greater adjustment in technology than the October 2002 rules that did so much to roil the equipment market over the past year.”
One key goal of the meeting will be to discuss whether EPA’s schedule provides sufficient time for engine, truck and component makers to design and build the new generation of products needed to meet the coming pollution standards.
Some fuel and lubricant makers have already indicated they will be hard-pressed to meet federal deadlines.
Carl Kirk, TMC’s executive director, said that in the June summit, “we need to hear from all corners of the industry before it’s too late to seek modifications in the schedule.”
n addition to industry executives, top government officials have been invited to attend the summit.
The TMC conference will feature 90 task force meetings and 12 educational sessions for specialists in trucking equipment.
bramson and Kirk said the idea for the meeting grew out of the chaos that marked the introduction late last year of lower-polluting, heavy-duty diesel engines required of almost all suppliers to the U.S. market.
The schedule for the introduction of the new engines was so rushed that many fleet executives refused to buy them, opting instead to buy up many of the available used trucks and to “pre-buy” new trucks produced with older-model engines not covered by the new rules.
“We all need a smoother introduction of the new models in 2006,” said Kirk. “It would benefit all parties if the new trucks are adequately tested before they’re offered for sale.”
Many engine makers are looking to develop models that include new technologies, such as adding urea to the diesel fuel exhaust stream in order to reduce tailpipe emissions and improve fuel efficiency.
EPA officials have expressed serious concerns about their ability to enforce the use of the urea additive, and have urged engine makers instead to utilize systems such as additional filters to reduce pollution.
But engine makers have pointed to Europe, where they are planning to embrace engine systems with urea additives to meet stricter pollution standards.
As a result, several U.S. makers have said they intend to proceed on developing such engines even if they end up selling them only in Europe.
The engine summit, Kirk and Abramson said, is designed to “get all the major parties in the same room” to discuss these issues.
This article appears in the April 7 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.
