EPA Refutes Engine Makers' Claims

The Environmental Protection Agency flatly denied claims by the nation’s largest diesel engine manufacturers that they had warned the agency in 1994 that its pollution tests were flawed and didn’t properly measure engine emissions.

EPA in October hit the six largest diesel engine makers with $1 billion in fines, retrofits and recalls for cheating on the emissions tests. Several manufacturers, led by Volvo Truck Corp., have since claimed they advised EPA in 1994 that the tests were flawed.

In a letter to Transport Topics, Eric V. Schaeffer, director of EPA’s office of regulatory enforcement, wrote, "Volvo’s assertion that EPA has known for years that its emissions tests did not properly measure NOx emissions when a truck is driven on the highway is simply not true."

Mr. Schaeffer, who sent the letter in the late afternoon of Dec. 22 in response to repeated requests for comment from EPA over the past month, acknowledged that EPA received information in 1994 about emissions control strategies the engine makers were using, but couldn’t find enough evidence to proceed. It was not until 1997, he wrote, that EPA found widespread abuse of emissions standards.

Attempts to reach engine makers for comment on the letter were unsuccessful as Transport Topics went to press.

After finding emissions abuses, Mr. Schaeffer said, the agency started negotiations with engine manufacturers, which resulted in record fines and stricter emissions requirements.

Mr. Schaeffer accused the engine makers of using defeat devices that violated the Clean Air Act to meet emissions and said that they never told the EPA about those devices.

These assertions run counter to claims made by Volvo and other engine makers that the EPA knew how they were using electronic controls to meet federal pollution standards and that the problem was due to the fact that the EPA’s emissions tests failed to properly measure Nitrous Oxide, or NOx, under normal operating conditions.

"EPA’s inability to substantiate the use of these illegal emissions control strategies until 1997 is not surprising given the facts of the situation," wrote Mr. Schaeffer. He said that the engine’s emissions control devices involve complicated software programs that are specifically designed to circumvent EPA tests, making them hard to detect.

He also denied that engine makers told EPA how their engines worked. "At no time before EPA’s discovery of their use in 1997, did any of the engine manufacturers involved in the recent settlement notify EPA of the existence or true nature of the illegal emission control strategies in question," wrote Mr. Schaeffer.

For the full story, see the Dec. 21 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.