Looks like the EPA is going to step up the requirements for clean burning locomotives...by 2020. They wont set stiffer limits for cars, or allow states to set stiffer limits, but then they set limits on Locomotives and steamships. The story doesnt address trucks, which aparrently just had a new limit come into effect....it would be nice to know how the new locomotive limits and newly instituted truck limits compare...
I guess the title of this thread is someone's opinion? What does it mean?
The EPA limits on engine emissions are for practical purposes equivalent across the board for all types of engines in all modes of transportation and all types of useage. There is no specific get-out-of-jail-free card issued to any engine class. If anything regulations on industrial engines have lagged regulations on automotive engines. While there are differences in regulations between engine types, they are technical in nature. It quickly gets out of hand trying to describe the differences, but if you do a Google search for "EPA locomotive emissions" and the same phrase substituting truck and ship, you can see for yourself.
The state limit you referred to and the automotive limits you allude to is on carbon dioxide. Current EPA engine emissions regulations govern nitrogen oxides (NOX), hydrocarbons (HC), carbon monoxide (CO), particulate matter (PM, aka soot), and visible smoke. The science used to develop these standards is voluminous and boils down to a comparison of expense to obtain lower emissions vs. money saved (health care, lost sick time, lost productivity time due to illness or death). Feel free to argue with the science or the economics, but be warned that just reading the basic documents to understand the EPA's methodology and the law that instructs the EPA is time consuming and not much fun. Start with 40 CFR 85, 89, and 92.
The EPA so far believes it does not have a clear federal mandate to regulate carbon dioxide. That will likely change by this time next year.
RWM
Perhaps a question mark would have been more appropriate in the thread title...
Your resonse seems to say that the new EPA regulations on Locomotive and ship engines either brings those requirements in line with the existing truck regulations, or are related to newer upcoming truck regulations.
My original thought was that the EPA was concentrating on doing things that had more appearance than effect. Specifically, I was thinking it would be more effective to change the output of cars a little bit, because there are more of them, the cumulative difference would be more than changing the output of a (relatively) few locomotive engines...and, easier to do politically, for the same numbers reason.
The information which you provided, but which was not present in the original story, helps put the events in context..
Thanks again for bringing your expertise to the forums.
Railway Man wrote: The EPA limits on engine emissions are for practical purposes equivalent across the board for all types of engines in all modes of transportation and all types of useage. There is no specific get-out-of-jail-free card issued to any engine class.
Railroads and maritime applications have had, in fact, get-out-of-jail free cards for over 30 years. Objectively, it appears at first glance amazing what the industry has been able to stall off for as long as possible. Railroads have been able to legally pollute at levels higher than trucks, buses or even off-road heavy equipment (tractors, bulldozers). And, I don't think that results from political considerations but from the extreme difficulty of controlling pollution from large, mobile diesel engines. They are inherently the dirtiest pollution source in general use.
Automotive engines had to meet strict nitrogen oxide emission controls in 1981. Catalytic converters were the primary means of meeting those requirements. "Control of Nitrogen Oxide Emissions from Automobile Engines: The Development of Rhodium/Platinum three-way Catalyst Systems,"By B. Harrison, B. J. Cooper, and A. J. J. Wilkins. Platinum Metals Rev., 1981, 25, (11, 14-22). The 1981 standards permitted a maximum of 1 gm/mile of combined nitrogen oxides, roughly equivalent to 3.0 g/bhp-hr.
Tier 4, in 2017, requires that Road Locomotives meet an emission limit between 0.9 and 1.7 g/bhp-hr of nitrogen oxides, using catalytic converter technology applied to cars nearly 30 years ago. That's in 2017. Somebody put that requirement out there just about as far as they could. They currently have to meet a 5.5 g/bhp-hr requirement. Trucks were required to meet a 0.20 g/bhp-hr emission limit last year, although various exemptions permitted 1.2-1.5 g/bhp-hr emissions.
There is nothing "equivalent across the board" on these requirements. The differences represent enormous technical and economic ramifications for these industries. Railroads got a pass, a huge pass -- I think reflecting the inherent limitations of the Diesel-electric locomotive when it comes to controlling emissions.
....Noted something in Muncie this morning that most certainly will start to effect diesel truck operations....Price.....$4.15 / gal.
Quentin
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