As an asthmatic, I fully support the effort to enforce strict environmental regulations, including those on diesel engines. My wife would have killed me if I bought a diesel 20 years ago. They stank she said. I only came round to buying one because they are cleaner now. But I support their use only as originally manufactured, with the pollution prevention equipment fully in place and functional. I also support major increases in taxing pollution. I got militant about pollution and the environment growing up in what was one of the most polluted areas of the country: Syracuse NY in the 1960s. Before the Clean Air Act. Before the Clean Water Act. Before the EPA. I lived two miles distance from from Onondaga Lake, the most polluted lake in the country 50 years ago. (Google it). A city that had such high levels of air pollution that 1/3 of the kids in my elementary school had asthma and 10% had high levels of lead in their blood. Now that Allied Chemical is closed and the old polluting steel mills have been rebuilt (yeah there are still mills in Syracuse), you can both swim in and breath above the lake. What remains to be cleaned up is auto exhaust. The most polluted area is now downtown where I 81 and 690 meet up. Where there are still enough traffic, diesel trucks and older cars jamming those highways, keeping Syracuse on the polluted air list. But almost all medium and large cities in this country suffer from auto and truck sourced air pollution, still.
You refer to and yet denigrate the success of the EPA air pollution controls since the mid 1970's. Vehicle exhaust emissions have been reduced by a factor of several 100's, yet you state that vehicle exhaust is still the big bad source. What you may have missed during the years is the change in air pollution standards that have come down the pike. Example the ozone standard, the standard was tightened and the LOC (Level of Concern) was cut from ppm (Parts Per Million) to ppb (Parts Per Billion) which placed many cities back on the offender list. All classifications of pollutants on the CAA (Clean Air Act) LOC have been tightened as the years have gone by. Yet the positive changes to air pollution levels are left in the mirror with the continued siren song from the environmentalists.
We have done a great job over the years to clean up the environment in the U.S. since the 1970's and we need to celebrate this. I can remember the red cloud (ozone) over Chicago in the 70's and 80's that could be seen from Springfield IL and was the cause for much irritation to my wife as we traveled through the city, which is not visibly apparent today. Examples continue for as long as I want to write them.
With that being said, I agree there is still room for improvement. My gripe is the diesel crowd that feels that "rolling coal" is the only way to prove your hp gain. I am a firm believer that all that black exhaust is wasted fuel and hp. I am presently in a conversation with a youngster who wants to strip all the emissions from his Ford Powerstroke, which will ultimately net him a loss in hp and torque without appropriate tuning of the ECM, which is now unavailable. When I was active in my machine shop and racing as a Pro in AMA competition I constantly lobbied for efficiency in fuel and exhaust as well as volumetric efficiency of the engine, vs only the peak hp on the dyno and the latest magazine article. I remember an engine for an RV built with a camshaft profile more suited for dirt track competition and high compression forged pistons and a double pumper carburetor, brought to me with no compression on one cylinder. A melted piston was located, and I rebuilt an engine with appropriate camshaft, carb, exhaust to provide a usable torque curve vs. peak hp much to the owners pleasure. Much less wasted fuel which also is less polluting. I still have all the exhaust emission equipment on my eco and I studied the GDE tune before buying it along with the Bullet from Banks Power.
In relation to the NYT article I feel like it is the ground work for a new push for Federal intrusion into your personal life. At present the EPA allows each state to enforce the Federal CAA, exception CA which enforces its own version, which allows for each state to determine the level of enforcement. Exception business that change large nationwide populations, eg: tuners and programmers, in the U.S. which became the target of enforcement in January of this year. This leaves the state governments to find and enforce against the small business that tunes or modifies emissions systems locally or the individual. What this article is leading up to is the Federal agency, EPA, to knock on your door and test your vehicle and enforce remedies, for good, bad or indifferent effect.
www.nytimes.com
