Canada Goes After Engine Makers
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Get an overview of the EPA's record settlement with engine makers from our Transport Canada, the government agency responsible for regulating truck emissions, is in negotiations with the six major U.S. diesel engines makers that agreed in October to a settlement with the EPA expected to cost the companies close to $1 billion.
Letters from the Canadian government went out to the engine makers soon after the settlement was announced, said Brian Jonah, the director of motor vehicle standards and research for Transport Canada.
In the U.S., engine makers — Caterpillar Inc., Cummins Engine Co., Detroit Diesel Corp., Mack Trucks, Navistar International Transportation Corp. and Volvo Truck Corp. — agreed to pay record fines, fund environmental projects, retrofit some of the engines on the road and meet tougher emissions standards. EPA claimed the engine makers were using electronic emissions controls in their engines to cheat federal tests for nitrogen oxides.
The engine makers have denied wrongdoing in the matter and claim they are being punished for something the EPA knew about and condoned for years (2-22, p. 1).
Jonah said negotiations in Canada are one-third over, and the engine makers have already agreed to meet stricter air emissions standards by 2002, 15 months earlier than had been planned, as they had in the United States.
“We’re still working on the other parts of an agreement in terms of the rebuild kits and the like,” said Jonah.
No fines have been agreed to yet, but Jonah would not rule them out. “That’s still an open question,” he said.
For the full story, see the March 8 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.
