The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has announced plans to impose pollution control restrictions on engines used in power boats, snowmobiles, off-road vehicles and the like.
Though the federal government has long applied pollution controls to automobile engines, the non-auto engines have escaped restrictions so far.
According to the EPA, they account for 13 percent of the hydrocarbon emissions, 6 percent of carbon monoxide emissions and 3 percent of the nitrogen oxide emissions from mobile sources spewed into the nation’s atmosphere every year.
“If left unregulated, pollution from these sources will continue to increase, becoming a larger part of the overall mobile-source pollution,” EPA Administrator Christie Whitman said last week. “When fully implemented, this action will not only protect public health, but will help to restore the view of our nation’s treasured scenic parks and wilderness areas.”
The Clinton administration took broad actions to reduce or eliminate snowmobile and off-road vehicle use in national parks because of the inordinate pollution generated by the two-cycle engines that power many of these recreational vehicles. A large portion of the exhaust of such engines is unburned fuel.
Bush administration Interior Secretary Gale Norton has suspended many of the Clinton-era limitations until they can be reviewed for possible changes.
Whitman said the restrictions pending under her new plan would reduce carbon monoxide emissions from non-auto vehicles by up to 56 percent and hydrocarbon and nitrogen oxide pollution by as much as 80 percent.
Engine types to be affected by the new rules would include:
– Non-road engines used by industry to power heavy machinery. If adopted as proposed, Whitman’s rules would impose nationwide limits on these emissions by 2004 that are similar to those already adopted by California. Even stricter requirements would be in place by 2007, she said.
– Recreational diesel marine engines used in yachts and smaller pleasure craft. They would be subject to the same strict controls applied to commercial vessels within two years.
– Off-road motorcycles and all-terrain vehicles. The rules would seek to make manufacturers switch from two-cycle to four-cycle engines, starting in 2006. More stringent restrictions on emissions would be applied in 2009. Off-road motorcycles and all-terrain vehicles used only for sanctioned sport competition would be exempt.
– Snowmobiles. They would be required to reduce hydrocarbon and carbon monoxide emissions by 30 percent in 2006 and 50 percent in 2010, with an emphasis on switching engine types to accomplish that.
A spokeswoman for the EPA said the restrictions were ordered in response to a lawsuit filed by the Sierra Club and other environmental groups during the Clinton administration.
She said imposition of the rules must await a 60-day public comment period and public hearings Oct. 24 in Washington and Oct. 30 in Denver.
A spokesman for the Sierra Club said his organization would have no official comment on the EPA action because it is temporarily withholding comment on Bush administration environmental policies in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
The EPA is to propose new restrictions on highway motorcycles, gasoline-powered boats and personal watercraft within the next few months.
