Pollution - USA - Board reviews buses, big rigs
- Diesel transit allowed to coast on emission standards while idling limits are slapped on long-haul trucks
- The board has aggressively tried to trim emissions
CAL,USA -The Argus/insidebayarea, by Douglas Fischer -21 Oct 2005: -- The California Air Resources Board gave diesel bus engine manufacturers a break Thursday, essentially postponing until 2010 tough new emission standards on diesel engines set to take effect in 2007... The move is good news for Bay Area transit operators — the only urban operators in California driving diesel — as it allows agencies to buy new diesel buses... Separately, the board Thursday closed a loophole allowing drivers of big rigs with sleeper cabs to idle their trucks indefinitely. As of 2008, they will be subject to the same five-minute rule as all other trucks, producing a vast savings in both emissions and fuel use... Of the diesel fuel used on the road today, the agency figures 3 percent — 160 million gallons annually — blows out the exhaust pipes of idling sleeper cabs... Driving both issues is nitrogen oxide, or NOx, emissions. A primary ingredient of smog, NOx contributes to asthma and other respiratory ailments in urban areas... With no bus manufacturer selling an engine capable of holding NOx emissions to a lower threshold until 2010, Bay Area bus agencies would have been unable to buy a new bus from 2007 through 2009 had the board not eased its rule...
posted by Unknown @ 1:06 PM
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