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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - Dec. 21, 1999
99-268A
Contact: Larry Altose, public information officer, 425-649-7192
Stu Clark, air quality policy analyst, 360-407-6873
OLYMPIA - New emissions standards for motor vehicles will play a crucial role in keeping Washington’s air clean over the next 10 to 20 years, thus supplementing current strategies that are playing a vital role in the near term, according to the Washington Department of Ecology (Ecology).
President Bill Clinton today announced new emission standards for passenger cars, light trucks and sport utility vehicles that are comparable to California’s standards. That state’s emission controls -- the nation’s tightest -- are more stringent than the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) current national standards.
EPA also will cap the amount of sulfur allowed in the nation’s gasoline. Enhanced emission controls on new vehicles will require low-sulfur fuel. The fuel change also will reduce emissions from existing vehicles. The sulfur standards for gasoline will be equal to California limits.
The new vehicle emissions will be phased in starting in 2004 and will be completed in 2009. Low-sulfur gasoline will first appear in Western Washington in 2004. Smaller refineries that serve Eastern Washington will phase in sulfur limits between 2004 and 2007. It takes about 16 years for a new generation of vehicles in Washington to completely replace existing vehicles.
"When these standards are fully implemented, the emissions reductions will be like having millions of today’s vehicles disappear from Washington’s roads," said Mary Burg, who manages Ecology’s air-quality program. "But change won’t happen overnight. We’ll continue to rely on our emission-check program and other strategies to keep today’s vehicles as clean as possible, until the benefits of the new federal standards really start to hit home."
Low-sulfur gasoline will begin to work with the first tank, even on existing cars. The resulting reduction in nitrogen oxides (which are key ingredients of ground-level ozone smog) will equate to removing 825,000 of today’s vehicles from the Puget Sound Region and 498,000 vehicles from the Vancouver/Portland/Salem area. There are more than 4.7 million registered vehicles in Washington state, including about 2.6 million in the Puget Sound region.
The changes in gasoline will usher in a new generation of catalytic converters that cannot run on today’s fuel. Statewide, Ecology estimates that the clean gasoline and new technology combined will reduce vehicle emissions one-third by 2010 compared to today. By 2020, vehicle emissions will be half of what they are today. Those emission reductions will be equal to taking about 1.5 million of today’s vehicles off the road in 2010 and nearly 3 million vehicles in 2020.Ecology played a key role in influencing EPA’s decision, according to Burg.
"Originally, the federal strategies were designed primarily for the Northeastern U.S., which has very serious air-quality problems," she explained. "Gasoline in the West would have had higher sulfur limits, but we’re close to violating air-quality standards here, too. Applying the low-sulfur gasoline program equally nationwide benefits everybody, while giving our smaller refineries additional time to phase in these changes."
Burg stressed that good vehicle maintenance and wise driving decisions will remain crucial to preventing excessive emissions from today’s vehicles and after the new changes phase in over the next decade and beyond.
"Vehicle use keeps growing, and that makes it even more important that we all do our part to keep our vehicles clean-running and make sure every trip we make is really necessary."
Copyright © Washington State Department of Ecology. See http://www.ecy.wa.gov/copyright.html.
