Clean Diesel the Focus of EPA Administrator Leavitt and International Truck and Engine Partnership

5/13/2004

From: William Omohundro of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5, 312-353-8254

CHICAGO, May 13 -- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Mike Leavitt joined senior executives of International Truck and Engine Corp. in Melrose Park, Ill., today to announce a partnership to further develop and commercialize a new clean diesel emissions control technology. The technology was developed by EPA at its National Vehicle and Fuel Emissions Laboratory in Ann Arbor, Mich.

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

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 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 partnership with International Truck will enable EPA to transfer clean diesel technology from the research laboratory to the truck and auto industry market place.

Today's announcement follows the signing earlier this week of the Clean Air Nonroad Diesel Rule, a regulation that will result in the widespread introduction of emission control systems throughout the country. This change, which is comparable to the advent of the catalytic converter for cars in the 1970s, 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.

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