EPA Issues Final Rules Cutting Diesel Pollution by 90%

The Clinton Administration unveiled final rules on Thursday to reduce diesel emissions from heavy-duty trucks and buses.

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The rules are designed to reduce pollution from those vehicles by more than 90% over the next decade, and rely in part on technology that has not yet been invented.

The rules apply to new trucks as well as replacement truck engines sold in late 2006, but at least a decade more will pass before the cleaner trucks replace most of the current fleet, AP reported.

Although companies that make engines and emission control equipment for trucks will be scrambling to meet the deadlines, the rules put much of the pressure on the petroleum industry, which will be required to remove most of the sulfur from the fuel.

EPA said heavy-duty trucks and buses currently account for one-third of nitrogen oxides emissions and one-quarter of particulate matter emmissions from mobile sources. The agency said the new rules would be the pollution equivalent of removing 13 million trucks from the roads.

The agency estimates that the rules would add as much as $1,900 to the cost of a vehicle. The costs of removing the sulfur from diesel fuel will raise the price by 4-5 cents per gallon, the agency said. The rule is expected to cost $4.3 billion over 30 years.

EPA also claims that the new rules, when fully implemented, will prevent 8,300 premature deaths and save over 1.5 million lost work days each year.

A steady drumbeat of studies has implicated diesel soot in health problems. The most recent found spikes in mortality immediately following high-pollution days.