The Environmental Protection Agency should consider creating an independent panel to assess "financial incentives" or other support for the trucking industry, according to a draft report by the General Accounting Office.

To be released within days, the report will be the focus of an upcoming trucking industry conference in Florida whose participants include the GAO staffer who oversaw the study, The Associated Press reported.

The EPA will participate in the truckers' conference too, as will Rep. Mac Collins, R-GA, one of 19 House Republicans who requested the GAO report. Collins' family runs a trucking business that he started and in which he still held a financial stake of over $500,000 as of 2002, according to the most recent financial disclosure report on file for the congressman.

Meanwhile, environmental advocates object, claiming GAO was too sympathetic to trucking industry demands for tax breaks or other incentives to help it meet stringent diesel emission reductions starting in 2007.

Trucking companies said the new rules would drive up their expenses because of costly, cleaner-burning engines.

The GAO draft report, obtained by The AP, said, "EPA could maximize the benefits from the 2007 diesel emissions standards by better addressing industry concerns."

Report promises controversy

The GAO's draft recommendations are in line with the industry's stated goal. According to press accounts, financial aid could come in the form of tax credits or tax benefits gained through accelerated depreciation.

"We are recommending that EPA consider what additional opportunities it has ... such as convening another independent review panel to assess progress or consider options – such as financial incentives or other means," the draft report says.

"It's deplorable that GAO has tarnished its reputation for independence by appearing to take dictation from whining, special-interest trucking companies and their supporters in Congress," Frank O'Donnell, executive director of the Clean Air Trust, said March 4, The AP reported.

Rep. Walter Jones of North Carolina is among the 19 House Republicans who requested the GAO study. He feels the EPA rule "is just another example of Washington bureaucrats attempting to impose sanctions that they believe have a positive environmental impact," said Lanier Swann, the congressman's spokeswoman. "In reality, they have a negative impact on both the environment and the industry involved."

Some history

The cleanup of diesel emissions stems from a scandal in which seven of the nation's largest diesel engine manufacturers sold 1.3 million heavy-duty engines with computer software that altered the engines' pollution control equipment under highway driving conditions.

The Clean Air Act bars manufacturers from using components that bypass the emission-control system.

In consent decrees with EPA, the engine manufacturers agreed to pay $850 million to produce cleaner engines by Oct. 1, 2002. As the next step in addressing diesel emissions, EPA created the 2007 standards.