Bush Administration Retools Clinton-Era AntiPollution Program for Trucks

DEARBORN, Mich. November 12, 2002; The WSJ reported that a Clinton-era program designed to make commercial trucks less polluting and more fuel-efficient is getting a business-friendly makeover under the Bush administration.

Two years ago, when the Clinton administration rolled out what it called its 21st Century Truck Partnership, it set a target to double or triple the fuel economy of a variety of commercial trucks, from school buses to big long-haul rigs, by 2010.

Now the Bush administration, responding to industry concerns that those goals were too aggressive, has retooled the government program to make it more amenable to makers of trucks and truck parts. At this point, the new version of the program, which represents about $60 million in federal spending this year, doesn't contain any specific numeric targets.

"The prior administration developed some goals that I don't think were realistic," David Garman, an assistant energy secretary, said at a conference where Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham rolled out the reconstituted program and met with top executives from industries including autos and oil.

Mr. Garman said the Bush administration does plan to set some numerical targets on issues like truck fuel economy through a series of "white papers" that are being written. But he made clear those targets would be less onerous than those set by the Clinton administration.

Trucking, Mr. Garman said, is "a tough, cyclical business with small margins." The new version of the federal clean-truck program represents "an agreement to agree" between the federal government and the industry.

The retooled program results from months of talks between the Bush administration and truck and truck-parts makers. Industry officials praised the new program.

"Two years ago, we really didn't have a shared vision statement," Kevin Beaty, manager of the hybrid-electric powertrain unit for Eaton Corp., a truck- parts maker, said of the federal government and the industry. He added the Bush administration's version of the program makes clear that any environmental advances must "be delivered cost-effectively."

Unlike the older version, Mr. Beaty said, the new version of the program will ensure the federal government is targeting its research-and-development subsidies to areas the industry thinks are commercially promising. "There are some things we can't convince our managers to commercialize," he noted, citing as an example natural-gas powered big trucks, "so why [is the federal government] spending money on it?"

Mr. Abraham said the new program seeks "to better align public and private interests in this critical national industry."

But the talk of government-industry partnership at the announcement turned sour when a top executive of truck-engine maker Detroit Diesel Corp. criticized the Environmental Protection Agency for a round of tough new limits on diesel- engine emissions that took effect last month. Industry officials have blamed the new rules for a recent drop-off in new-truck orders that has forced industry layoffs. Detroit Diesel is a subsidiary of DaimlerChrysler AG (DCX).

"The EPA and the industry together agreed to an emissions level that was beyond the technology available at that time," said Ludwig Koci, chairman emeritus of Detroit Diesel.

An EPA official reacted angrily to Mr. Koci's assertion, saying it was industry players, including Detroit Diesel, that agreed to move up the implementation date for the diesel emission rules to 2002 from the initial date of 2004. "It was their idea, not ours," the EPA official said. "Now that they are having trouble meeting it, they are complaining about it."