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From this morning Tribune.
Reading through this article, I can find no mention on how big business will profit from this. So besides possible claims of this just being a smokescreen, maybe Bush isn't as anti-environment as all the liberals here claim.
FULL STORY
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EPA seeks to reduce pollutants in diesels
Environmentalists laud Bush for bid to clean air
By Michael Kilian
Washington Bureau
Published April 16, 2003
WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration announced an initiative Tuesday aimed at reducing pollution from "non-road" diesel engines by 90 percent, saying it could save up to 9,600 lives a year and prevent 360,000 asthma attacks annually.
The move, which would affect machinery used in construction, agriculture and industry, earned the White House rare praise from environmentalists, with a spokesman for one environmental group calling Bush's action "fantastic."
"This is the biggest public health event in a generation," said Rich Kassel, senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, a frequent critic of the administration. "It's the biggest health benefit since lead was taken out of gasoline back in the early 1970s."
The announcement by Christie Whitman, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, came as the American Lung Association issued a report indicating that the combination of toxic substances found in diesel exhaust "poses a cancer risk greater than that of any other air pollutant."
John Kirkwood, president of the association, said "cleaning up the harmful pollutants discharged from large diesel equipment and diesel electric generators are among the most important measures that can be taken to help millions of Americans breathe healthier air."
The new rule would require manufacturers to build advanced emission-control systems into equipment used on farms, in construction and in some power generators, among other industrial applications.
After undergoing a period of public comment this summer, it would take effect in 2008 and be fully implemented in 2014.
Whitman had earlier taken steps to reduce diesel pollution from on-the-road trucks and other vehicles, with an emissions-control program scheduled to start in 2007. Another EPA measure requires refitting school buses with more effective pollution-control equipment.
Administration officials portrayed the moves as part of a broad effort to clean the air.
"This action represents a strong commitment from the Bush administration to take the next step to achieve cleaner air and protect the health of all Americans, especially the health of children and the elderly who are more susceptible to diesel pollution," Whitman said.
The Bush administration has found itself at odds with environmentalists more often than not.
Some Bush initiatives have stirred anger, such as withdrawing from an international treaty on global warming, pushing for oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, allowing more pollution-prone snowmobiles in national parks and permitting power plants to expand without up-to-date anti-pollution equipment.
In addition, many have noted the Bush administration's ties to the oil industry, where Bush and Vice President **** Cheney have worked.
Some environmentalists suggested that the Bush administration announced the proposed rule on diesel emissions to burnish the president's environmental credentials with an eye toward the 2004 election.
But others noted that Whitman has been a strong supporter of such initiatives since her days as New Jersey governor.
"She was fighting against diesel pollution when she was governor of New Jersey," Kassel said.
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said the new rule simply makes environmental sense.
"This is a proposal to dramatically reduce emissions from non-road diesel engines used in construction, agricultural and industrial equipment," Fleischer said. "It will require stringent, non-road engine controls and reductions of sulfur in diesel fuel."
According to EPA estimates, it would remove 825,000 tons of nitrogen oxide and 125,000 tons of particulate matter, or soot, from the air.
Because the pollution-control devices called for in the proposal are damaged by sulfur, the program also would require a dramatic reduction in those emissions from currently uncontrolled levels reaching 3,400 parts per million to 500 parts per million, starting in 2007. By 2010, sulfur content would be reduced by 99 percent.
Whitman said non-road diesel engines account for 44 percent of all diesel particulate matter emissions and about 12 percent of all nitrogen oxide emissions. A 175-horsepower bulldozer emits as much of these two pollutants as 26 cars, she said.
Nearly 70 million people live in areas that don't meet air quality standards for particulate matter pollution and 111 million live in areas with unhealthy levels of ground-level ozone, or smog, to which diesel exhaust is a major contributor, the EPA said.
Officials estimated that the proposed rule would annually prevent 9,600 premature deaths, 8,300 hospitalizations, 16,000 heart attacks, 5,700 children's asthma-related hospital emergency room visits, 260,000 respiratory problems in children and nearly 1 million work days lost to illness.
The American Petroleum Institute, the American Trucking Association and other industry groups had no immediate response to the new rule. The Petroleum Institute, however, has been an advocate of a phased-in approach to reducing diesel emissions.
Public comments on the proposal will be accepted by the EPA until Aug. 20.
Public hearings will be held in New York on June 10, Chicago on June 12 and Los Angeles on June 17.
Copyright © 2003, Chicago Tribune
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