FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Environmental Groups Petition EPA to Limit Greenhouse Gas Emissions Generated by Non-road Vehicles and Engines

Public interest and environmental organizations, joined by several states, today called upon the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from non-road vehicles and engines, a large component of the mobile source sector with the fastest rate of increase in GHG emissions.

Contacts:
Dan Galpern, Western Environmental Law Center: (541) 485-2471, galpern@westernlaw.org
Gareth Lacy, Office of California Attorney General Brown: (916) 324-5500
Nick Berning, Friends of the Earth: (202) 222-0748
Joe Mendelson, International Center for Technology Assessment (CTA) and the Center for Food Safety: (202) 547-9359

Public interest and environmental organizations, joined by several states, today called upon the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from non-road vehicles and engines, a large component of the mobile source sector with the fastest rate of increase in GHG emissions.

In a petition crafted by the Western Environmental Law Center (WELC), the International Center on Technology Assessment (ICTA), Center for Food Safety (CFS) and Friends of the Earth (FoE) formally requested EPA to limit GHG emissions from vehicles, engines and equipment used for construction, agriculture, commercial, industrial, logging, garden, and recreation. The environmental groups are joined in this effort by several state attorneys general led by California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown, Jr.

According to WELC attorney Dan Galpern, “Scientists are clear that atmospheric concentrations of CO2 and other greenhouse gases are reaching the point of dangerous interference with the planet’s climate system. To avoid catastrophe, every major sector needs to reduce its burden, and soon. Vehicles and engines used in the non-road construction, agriculture, commercial, logging, and recreation generate enormous CO2 emissions. This petition is a roadmap to reasonable regulation of non-road vehicles. To fulfill its duty to protect the American people, EPA has only to follow this roadmap.”

In 2007, the non-road sector emitted 220 million tons of CO2, the most important GHG. The non-road sector includes loaders, excavators, dozers, tractors, combines, generators, compressors, forklifts, mowers, feller bunchers, pleasure craft, snowmobiles, ATV’s and offroad motorcycles. See the attached, CO2 Emissions from Non-road Vehicles and Engines, for further detail.

In 2005, the latest year for which sector-by-sector GHG emissions data is available, emissions from the nonroad sector generated nine percent of all mobile source GHG emissions in the United States. GHG emissions from the nonroad sector exceed those from aircraft, boats and ships, and rail. Non-road mobile sources increased 49% between 1990 and 2005 – a significantly higher rate of emissions increase over the same period than for on-road vehicles (32%), aircraft (3%), boats and ships (36%) and rail (32%).

“Our petition gives EPA yet another opportunity to do the right thing and begin, at long last, to regulate GHG emissions from all major sectors,” said Danielle Fugere, Regional Program Director for FoE. “We previously called for limitations on such emissions from all major transportation sectors. Now we and the states are requesting that EPA regulate emissions from non-road vehicles and engines, the sector with the fastest growing GHG emissions.”

The petition lists 17 currently available methods for restricting GHG emissions from this sector, ranging from use of low-carbon fuels to use of auxillary power units to avoid engine use solely to heat or cool the cab of a large machine. In addition, the petition cites caselaw establishing that the Clean Air Act is a technology forcing statute, requiring EPA to press hard to limit emissions that endanger public health and safety.

"The Bush Administration has been engaged in a legal rope-a-dope on global warming since 2000," said Joseph Mendelson, Legal Director of the CTA and the Center for Food Safety. " After our recent Supreme Court victory in Massachusetts v. EPA, the Agency can no longer deny its legal responsibility to limit GHG emissions from all sectors, including those generated by offroad vehicles."

Click here to view WELC's Illustrative Chart of Nonroad GHG Emissions

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