The Environmental Protection Agency has tentatively given the go-ahead for the Houston-Galveston area to adopt a pollution control plan that would include the creation of a boutique diesel fuel. The Texas Motor Transportation Association has expressed concern that the new rules would be problematic, echoing calls from trucking organizations nationwide to adopt a single fuel standard.
The Houston-Galveston clean air plan is designed to reduce air pollutants that form ozone, smog's chief ingredient, by reducing nitrogen oxide emissions by 90 percent starting in 2002. The plan details how the eight-county area will ensure it meets the national health-based air quality standard for ozone by 2007.
Boutique fuels, also known as CARB diesel, are specially formulated blends designed to help qualifying cities and counties meet federally mandated clean air standards. Under the proposed plan, a low-emission diesel fuel must be formulated for sale by 2005 and heavy-duty vehicle idling time would be limited.
Bill Webb, president of TMTA, expressed concern about the EPA's fuel plan. "If every state adopts its own fuel formulation, we will have a patchwork of fuels that will be unrealistic from both a production and a consumption standpoint," Webb said. "The federal diesel standard due for 2006 is the fuel we should all be striving for, and that will move us in the direction of a unified and consistent cleaner burning diesel."
TMTA has filed written comments with Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission reiterating opposition to the diesel fuel requirement, according to published reports.
The state previously proposed a before-noon ban on the use of diesel construction equipment, but that provision was taken out by the legislature, and a Texas district court last month ruled the state couldn't impose such mandates beyond federal requirements.
A 30-day public comment period will begin after the EPA's proposed approval is printed in the Federal Register. The EPA is required to make a final decision on the plan by Oct. 15.
