UPDATE:Navistar Says EPA Let Trade Group Write Exhaust Guidance
2009年7月16日 - 7:51AM
Dow Jones News
Truck maker Navistar International Corp. (NAV) intensified its
dispute with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency by accusing
the agency of allowing an industry trade group to write the EPA's
guidelines for complying with new diesel-exhaust regulations.
The EPA's certification of selective catalytic reduction, or
SCR, and the rules for using the technology on commercial trucks
were "substantially adopted" or lifted "verbatim" from drafts
written by the Engine Manufacturers Association, Navistar said in a
filing earlier this month with the U.S. Court of Appeals in
Washington.
The filing is intended to bolster Navistar's lawsuit, filed in
March, challenging the EPA's certification process for SCR. The
company alleges the agency disregarded its own procedures and
requirements to accommodate truck makers wishing to install SCR on
new diesel engines. In the latest filing, Navistar accuses the EPA
of fashioning a biased and incomplete record of comments and
concerns about SCR, which involves filtering engine exhaust through
a urea solution to reduce nitrogen oxide and other pollutants.
The EPA said Wednesday it wouldn't have an immediate
response.
The engine association said it offered EPA suggestions and
technical information for the guidelines, but added its involvement
in the rule making process was not out of the ordinary.
"None of the information submitted was proprietary or secret,"
Joe Suchecki, the association's director of public affairs, said in
an email.
Stricter federal standards on nitrogen oxide emissions from
diesel engines commence in January 2010. Complying with the
regulations is expected to add several thousand dollars to the cost
of a new commercial truck.
Navistar, a member of the engine association, is the only U.S.
truck maker not using SCR, which also is widely deployed in Europe.
Illinois-based Navistar is relying on a treatment system that
recirculates exhaust through its engines, eliminating the need for
urea and other treatment components used in selective catalytic
reduction. Critics have said Navistar's complaints about SCR are
designed to mask the shortcomings of its emissions system.
Navistar's filing portrays the Chicago-based engine association
as an influential intermediary in developing a consensus around the
use of SCR. The company cited email correspondence from the
association that Navistar said supports its contention that the EPA
ceded control over the guidelines for SCR to the trade
association.
"We have had a number of internal phone calls about the SCR
guidance document and I'm pleased to report that we have convinced
everybody to drink the Kool-Aid," said Jed Mandel, the engine
association president, in a Jan. 22, 2009, email to Karl J. Simon,
acting director of the EPA's compliance and innovative solutions
division, that included a draft of the usage guidelines. "It would
be in everyone's best interests to get your autograph on this as
soon as possible - and have this done."
Navistar particularly objects to an EPA provision allowing
commercial trucks with SCR to operate for up to 1,000 miles without
a functioning system before the engine becomes inoperable. A tank
with urea has to be replenished every several thousand miles to
keep the system functioning properly. Navistar maintains truckers
could repeatedly invoke the 1,000-mile exemption, undermining the
effectiveness of the emissions regulation.
-By Bob Tita, Dow Jones Newswires; 312-750-4129;
robert.tita@dowjones.com