U.S.

No More Dirty Trucks

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

December 20, 2000 / 9:17 PM EST / CBS

CBS News Correspondent Peter Maer reports new rules approved by the Clinton Administration are expected to cut truck and bus pollution by more than 90 percent over the next decade.

The often stinky sooty emissions from buses and big rigs will be reduced and refiners will be required to make sulfur-free diesel fuel.

The rules will kick in by late 2006. It could take ten years beyond that for cleaner trucks to replace the current vehicles. But environmentalists say if the rules are fully enacted, it would be the same as pulling 13 million trucks from the road.

Best Cars
The American Automobile Association is naming its 12 best cars of the 2001 model year. CBS News Correspondent John Hartge reports Triple A evaluators have checked out more than 200 new cars and rate the Nissan Sentra the best low priced car, under $12,500.

"It'll certainly get you around town in a very comfortable fashion," said AAA editor Dave Van Sickle. He said the best car overall, the Mercedes S500, is at the other end of the price scale, around $80,000.

"It scored well because it does so many things so very well," said Van Sickle.

AAA rates the Nissan Xterra and GMC Yukon (above) the best SUVs.

Looking for a good car deal? The Van Sickle says there are perfectly good family sedans with bargain prices, because they're out of favor in this age of sport utilities.

"Manufacturers have had to lower the prices on the sedans and ordinary cars just to keep them moving, and that's where you find the greatest values," Van Sickle told CBS Radio News.

Now if you're just looking for fun - for cool:

"We think the PT Cruiser just stands apart from everything else," enthuses Van Sickle.

So it gets the Triple-A's cool car award...even if it's not at the top of the objective ratings as best new car.

It's part of a flurry of regulations being churned out in the last days of the Clinton administration and crafted to head off challenge by an incoming Bush administration.

Some Republicans plan to fight it after George W. Bush takes office.

Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., has vowed to push legislation that would roll back the diesel rule next year, arguing the requirements could lead to fuel shortages.

Environmentalists, who have eagerly awaited the EPA truck and diesel regulations since they were proposed last May, expressed dubt they would be overturned given the widespread public sentiment against trucks belching black smoke from their smokestacks.

"This is the biggest vehicle pollution news since the removal of lead from gasoline," said Richard Kassel, an attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council and head of a campaign to reduce truck pollution.

To meet the more stringent emission standards, heavy-duty trucks will for the first time will have to be equipped with pollution controls that capture exhaust chemicals — similar to the catalytic devices that have been required on cars for years.

At the same time, 80 percent of the diesel fuel sold nationwide will have to be virtually sulfur free — on average 15 parts per million of sulfur — by 2006. All diesel will have to meet the new requirement by 2010. EPA officials have maintained that the ultra-low sulfur diesel is essential for the new pollution control equipment to work properly.

The new standards anticipate about a 95 percent reduction of smog-causing nitrogen oxide, compared to levels already expected to be achieved from trucks by 2004, and a 90 percent reduction in microscopic soot.

Diesel soot, which has been associated with increased asthma, bronchitis and heart disease, as well as possibly cancer, has been of special concern to health specialists. A recent study at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health found a link between exposure to microscopic soot and death rates in 20 large cities.

But oil companies and truck engine manufacturers have questioned whether they can meet the EPA's timetable for both the cleaner truck engines and the fuel.

"These are unprecedented standards," said Allen Schaeffer, executive director of the Diesel Technology Forum, an industry group. "The kind of levels of reductions that are being talked about are going to require technology that is not commercially available yet."

The American Petroleum Institute cited a study said the new sulfur requirements would boost diesel prices by at least 15 cents a gallon and cause "a significant risk of (fuel) shortages" by 2007. The EPA has estimated the additional cost at less than 5 cents a gallon with no expected shortages.

The new 15 parts per million sulfur level compares to an average 500 parts per million in today's fuel. Oil companies have argued that reduction may not be technically possible and urged a cut to 50 parts per million.