New EPA Action Dramatically Cuts Truck Emissions

The EPA has announced a major action 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, the 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. "This is the biggest vehicle pollution news since the removal of lead from gasoline," said Richard Kassel, an attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council and head of a campaign to reduce truck pollution. 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.