WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration said it will make the reduction of pollution from bulldozers, tractors, mining equipment and other off-road sources of diesel emissions a "top environmental priority."
The Environmental Protection Agency and the White House's Office of Management and Budget said they will launch a joint effort to tighten regulations on off-road diesels.
The move, announced Friday, also will have an impact on the nation's refining industry because it would provide incentives for off-road diesel users to use fuel with a lower sulfur content. Refiners are being required to alter their facilities to produce low-sulfur fuel for cars and trucks.
Refiners are worried about both the costs of overhauling their refineries and a possible shortage of diesel fuel when the regulations take effect.
The move came just before state air-pollution control regulators were about to launch a new lobbying campaign for more controls on off-road diesels.
Joe Martyak, spokesman for the EPA, said the agency welcomes the early involvement of OMB, which usually only reviews regulations once they are finished. "We're glad they're lending us support to move this along," he said. "It's a very important regulation."
Millions of bulldozers, portable generators and irrigation pumps create a surprisingly serious health risk from air pollution, a study concluded on Monday, touching off a new regulatory battle between the Bush administration and environmental groups.
The study, sponsored by a national association of state pollution officials,
noted that off-road diesel equipment and vehicles produced more fine-particle pollutants than all the nation's diesel-powered cars, trucks and buses combined.
Citing costly health and economic losses, the association called for a federal crackdown on pollution-emitting off-road diesel equipment. But the Bush administration favors a different approach that emphasizes voluntary incentives for manufacturers.
On Friday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs issued a joint statement backing mostly industry-favored solutions, including a system that would allow manufacturers to trade emission credits.
Fine-particle pollutants can lodge deep in the lungs and contribute to cardiovascular disease, chronic bronchitis, pneumonia and asthma.
The new study by the Washington, D.C.-based Association of Local Air Pollution Control Officials said that 8,500 premature deaths and $67 million in health costs could be eliminated each year by such steps as reducing the sulfur content in diesel fuels and improving engine designs.
In California, that would translate to 770 fewer premature deaths among adults 30 and older, 16,300 fewer asthma attacks and $6 million in health savings.
California health officials said Monday they welcomed the call for stricter federal regulation. The federal Clean Air Act gives the EPA the authority to regulate most categories of off-road construction and farm equipment.
Predictably, the Bush administration's proposed approach did not satisfy environmental groups. They are already at odds over the administration's decision to promote a "Clear Skies" initiative that would replace EPA suits against polluters with an incentive program to voluntarily reduce power-plant emissions.
Under the administration initiative offered Friday, the federal agencies will consider several options, including offering incentives -- or credits -- to manufacturers who improve equipment. If they improve engine and pollution controls in the off-road area, they could reduce those required for trucks, buses and cars.
The diesel industry quickly praised the plan.
Allen Schaeffer, executive director of the Diesel Technology Forum, a trade group for equipment manufacturers and fuel refiners, said traditional EPA rule- making wouldn't work with off-road equipment.
But Rich Kassel, at the nonprofit Natural Resources Defense Council, said he viewed the administration initiative as "a back-door way for the oil industry and its friends in the Bush administration to reopen last year's highway diesel rule. Obviously, we will strongly oppose it if it goes forward in any forum."
The EPA appears to be "ceding its full regulatory authority to the White House Office of Management and Budget to jointly produce a rule that would consider emissions trading between trucks and buses and farm and construction equipment."
EPA spokesman Joe Martyak said critics were reading too much into the Friday statement.
"At this point, we're just putting on the table a sample of ideas," he said,
adding that a trading program between on-road and off-road sources would be similar to "averaging between car fleets to bring down the overall emissions that are out there."
DETROIT -- Expanding its diesel-engine partnerships, Ford Motor Co. has begun developing a V8 diesel engine jointly with Navistar International Corp. for possible use in sport-utility vehicles in the U.S.
Ford is "looking at all kinds of diesel engine sizes for North America," said Dave Szczupak, Ford's vice president in charge of its powertrain operations. "We see diesel engines' growing popularity coming down from heavy-duty to light-duty pickup trucks and then into the SUVs."
Mr. Szczupak noted, however, that it is still "unclear" as to exactly how, where or when Ford is going to use the new V8 diesel engine. "There's a lot of work still to do," he said, adding that the engine's future in the U.S. is dependent in part upon regulatory standards for diesel emissions that have yet to take clear shape.
Ford's senior executives, including the auto maker's president and chief operating officer, Nick Scheele, have been bullish about the future of advanced diesel engines in the U.S. because of their fuel economy and other benefits. But the company so far has not revealed any specific plans to equip its U.S.-market SUVs or other light vehicles with diesel engines.
Currently, diesel engines are available mostly in heavy-duty work trucks such as F-Series Super Duty pickups and the Ford Excursion SUV, which Ford sources from Navistar International. Its mass-market SUVs like the Expedition and the Explorer currently do not offer diesel engines as options.
James Marcoux, Navistar International's vice president in charge of world-wide sales and marketing, said Ford and his company are jointly developing the V8 diesel at Ford facilities in Europe with an idea to possibly use it with SUVs in the U.S., as well as for other purposes in Europe.
"The reason why we are involved ... is because [the engine] could come to North America," Mr. Marcoux said. He said the two companies are trying to complete development of the engine "by mid-decade."
The Ford-Navistar project augments a similar project Ford is pursuing with France's PSA Peugeot Citroen. That joint venture aims to develop four-cylinder diesel engines and larger diesel powertrains for cargo vans for use in Europe, said a company spokesman.
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