Leavitt on the Road with Clean Diesel Promotion

CHICAGO, Illinois, May 14, 2004 (ENS) - U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Mike Leavitt announced a new cleaner diesel fuel policy earlier this week, and since then he has been out on the road selling it.

Leavitt joined senior executives of International Truck and Engine Corp. in Melrose Park, Illinois Thursday to announce a partnership to further develop and commercialize a new clean diesel emissions control technology.

The new technology, called Clean Diesel Combustion, is a low cost, durable diesel engine technology that allows diesel engines to meet the emissions levels required by EPA's future diesel emissions standards.

The technology was developed by EPA engineers at the National Vehicle and Fuel Emissions Laboratory in Ann Arbor, Michigan. International Truck has partnered with EPA researchers to evaluate and demonstrate clean diesel effectiveness in International's new SUV-sized V-6 diesel engine.

The partnership with International Truck will enable the EPA to transfer the technology from the laboratory to the marketplace.

"We are changing the way diesel engines are made and the way diesel fuel is refined in our country," said Leavitt. "The benefit is cleaner air, less dependence on foreign oil and more jobs and a stronger economy for Americans."

Today's announcement follows the signing earlier this week of the Clean Air Nonroad Diesel Rule. Leavitt says this change is comparable to the advent of the catalytic converter for cars in the 1970s. It will reduce emission levels from construction, agricultural and industrial-powered equipment by over 90 percent and remove approximately 99 percent of the sulfur in diesel fuel by 2010.

The EPA-International clean diesel technology partnership is the result of a method established by Congress to move technology from federal laboratories to the market place. It enables companies interested in exploring the commercial potential of scientific research done at these laboratories to support, evaluate and license promising technologies like Clean Diesel Combustion.

Leavitt was in Knoxville, Tennessee on Wednesday touring the IdleAire facility. Technology developed by IdleAire allows drivers to save 100 percent of the diesel fuel previously consumed by extended engine idling at rest or wait periods, and will reduce up to 90 percent of all pollutants emitted while idling, the administrator was told.

"We are gong to make that burst of black smoke that erupts from diesels a thing of the past," Leavitt said at IdleAire. "We're able to accomplish this in large part because of a masterful collaboration with engine and equipment manufacturers, the oil industry, state officials, and the public health and environmental communities."

Information about clean diesel combustion technology is at: http://www.epa.gov/otaq/technology.