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 o protect public health and the environment, the Clinton-Gore
Administration announced a major action on December 21, 2000
that will provide the cleanest running heavy-duty trucks and
buses in history. These vehicles will be 95 percent cleaner than
today's trucks and buses. To ensure cleaner-running trucks and
buses, today's action also requires that sulfur in diesel fuel
be reduced by 97 percent. By addressing diesel fuel and engines
together as a single system, this action will produce the clean-air
equivalent of eliminating air pollution from 13 million of today's
trucks.
 "Anyone
who has ever driven behind a large truck or bus is familiar with
the smell of diesel fuel and the clouds of thick exhaust emissions.
Today's action will dramatically cut harmful air pollution by
up to 95 percent. New trucks and buses run as cleanly as those
running on natural gas," said EPA Administrator Carol M.
Browner. "The Clinton-Gore Administration already has produced
the toughest tailpipe standards ever for passenger vehicles.
This action takes the next, giant step to achieve cleaner air
and protect the health of all Americans. One huge benefit of
today's action will be the greatest reduction in harmful emissions
of particulate matter, or soot, ever achieved from cars and trucks."
An older,
dirtier diesel vehicle can emit almost eight tons of air pollution
each year. EPA has determined that diesel exhaust is likely to
cause lung cancer in humans. This action will reduce 2.6 million
tons of smog-causing nitrogen oxide emissions each year once
the program is fully implemented. Emissions of soot, or particulate
matter, will be reduced by nearly 110,000 tons each year. As
a result, today's action will prevent 8,300 premature deaths,
5,500 cases of chronic bronchitis, and 17,600 cases of acute
bronchitis in children. It will also avoid over 360,000 asthma
attacks and more than 386,000 cases of respiratory symptoms in
asthmatic children annually. The action will prevent 1.5 million
lost work days, 7,100 hospital admissions and 2,400 emergency
room visits for asthma every year.
To date, most
diesel trucks and buses have not used pollution control devices
similar to those used on cars for the last 25 years. To enable
modern pollution-control technology to be effective on trucks
and buses, however, diesel fuel must be significantly cleaner
than it is today. EPA will reduce the sulfur content of highway
diesel fuel from its current level of 500 parts per million to
15 parts per million -- a 97 percent reduction.
Significant
lead time has been provided in the rule for the introduction
of new cleaner fuel into the marketplace to ensure no disruptions
in fuel supplies and reduce costs. Engine manufacturers will
have flexibility to meet the new standards through a phase-in
approach between 2007 and 2010. The fuel provisions will go into
effect in June 2006. The program includes various flexible approaches,
including additional time for some refiners if required and special
provisions for small oil refiners. EPA estimates the costs of
this program will raise costs of new vehicles by $1,200 to $1,900
per vehicle (new trucks cost up to $150,000 and buses cost up
to $250,000). EPA estimates diesel fuel costs could increase
by four to five cents per gallon. The benefits of the action
outweigh costs by 16 to one.
Last December,
the Clinton Administration announced the cleanest tailpipe standards
ever for passenger vehicles. Those standards, for the first time
ever, ensured that SUVs, minivans and pick-up trucks would run
as cleanly as other passenger vehicles. That action, as well
as today's, will ensure that every single new vehicle on the
American road in the future will be up to 95 percent cleaner
than all vehicles now on the road. The final rule and related
documents are available at: www.epa.gov/otaq/diesel.htm.
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