Clearing the Air?

The Environmental Protection Agency spared no fanfare when it held a press conference last month to announce $1 billion worth of penalties, retrofits and accelerated emissions compliance dates for the world’s largest diesel engine manufacturers. The news came a day after the agency leaked its intentions to reporters for several large newspapers, effectively giving EPA the opportunity to tell its side of the story unhindered by the engine makers.

The manufacturers, according to EPA, had found a way to cheat on the agency’s emissions tests by designing their electronic controls to run clean enough to pass the certification tests, but not to meet targets under actual normal driving conditions (TT, 10-26-98, p. l).

But according to officials at Sweden’s Volvo Truck Corp., EPA has known for years that its tests didn’t properly measure engine nitrogen oxide emissions under highway conditions. And EPA continued to use these tests despite that knowledge, the Volvo officials said, according to a story on the front page of this issue of TT.

The International Automotive Constructors Organization gave EPA data at a meeting in 1994 showing its tests were flawed, the company said. And, a Volvo engineer said, EPA had been advised of its test’s shortcoming informally before then.

TT made repeated attempts to get EPA to respond to Volvo’s claim; a key enforcement official for the agency refused to discuss the matter on the record. A spokeswoman would say only that an official who represented EPA at the 1994 meeting had no recollection of receiving data that showed its emissions tests weren’t up to par.

EPA’s lack of response is unacceptable.

If the Volvo officials are correct, EPA has done a disservice to the engine manufacturers by fining them $185 million for conspiring to cheat and using them as whipping boys for the agency’s own failures.

And if EPA officials failed to improve their tests after being warned that they didn’t adequately measure pollutants, they have also failed the rest of us.

We need, and deserve, better answers from EPA, and we need them now.