EPA Issues Amendments to the
Heavy-Duty Highway Greenhouse
Gas Rule and Other Nonroad
Provisions
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) are
adopting amendments to the agencies' respective rules addressing
Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standards and Fuel Efficiency Standards
for Medium' and Heavy-Duty Engines and Vehicles. EPA and NHTSA
are adopting amendments to correct inconsistencies and add clarifications
to the current rules' text. These amendments eliminate duplicative
reporting requirements, reduce inadvertent minor differences between
the EPA and NHTSA programs regarding such matters as voluntary
early model year compliance, better align testing procedures to market
realities, and reduce unnecessary testing burdens.
This action also separately amends EPA regulations addressing mobile
source emissions other than greenhouse gases. These other amendments
include exemption provisions for new replacement engines, technical
hardship provisions for nonroad diesel engines, fuel line permeation
test procedures for large nonroad spark-ignition engines, and other
amendments for small nonroad spark-ignition engines.
EPA and NHTSA are accepting comment on this action, and EPA
is also publishing EPA-specific amendments in a parallel notice of
proposed rulemaking. EPA's proposed rule would be used to address
public comments, as needed.
SEPA
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Office of Transportation and Air Quality
EPA-420-F-13-001
May 2013
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Background
After the 2011 publication of the heavy-duty greenhouse gas and fuel efficiency rules, EPA and
NHTSA began an extensive outreach effort to aid in the rules' implementation. In the course
of these efforts, the agencies received comments on specific aspects of the rules. In some cases it
became clear that minor amendments to the rules would help to clarify the rules' intent or make
them more effective. The amendments adopted here are largely based on these implementa-
tion discussions, and the agencies are jointly taking this action to maintain a single, harmonized
national program. This joint action will facilitate an expedited compliance process by allowing
engine and vehicle certifications, based on the amendments, to occur directly after publication.
In addition, EPA is adopting other amendments to address issues in the following five areas:
Replacement Engines: EPA is adopting modifications to the replacement engine provisions
to allow on a limited basis the practice of replacing engines with engines that are cleaner,
but not certified to the most stringent standards. EPA is also revising the regulations to help
ensure the proper use of this exemption,
Nonroad Technical Hardships: EPA is revising technical hardship provisions to allow for
wider Agency discretion to provide additional allowances for equipment manufacturers to
transition to Tier 4 standards, based on individual circumstances involving exceptional
difficulties in the availability of compliant engines,
Transition Program for Marine Equipment Manufacturers: EPA is addressing a potential
supply issue of compliant engines for marine installation during the transition to new emis'
sion standards for land'based engines by temporarily allowing marine equipment manufaC'
turers to use allowances if a compliant marine engine is not available,
Large Spark Ignition (SI) Engine Fuel Lines: EPA is modifying the regulation to allow fuel
lines for Large SI engines to meet either the 1996 or 2004 version of SAE J2260 to address a
fuel line supply issue,
Small Spark Ignition (SI) Amendments: Through 2019 EPA is aligning an optional certifi'
cation fuel to California's Phase 3 gasoline for small SI nonroad engines, along with equiva-
lent stringency standards.
What are the Economic and Environmental Impacts?
The regulatory changes in this action provide clarification and guidance and will have no cost
impact. Similarly, these regulatory changes will have no environmental impact, except for the
potential delay in the Tier 4 implementation schedule of a limited number of nonroad diesel
engines.
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For More Information
You can access the direct final rule, the proposed rule and related documents on EPA's Office of
Transportation and Air Quality (OTAQ) Web site at:
www.epa.gov/otaq/highway-diesel/regs.htm
and
www.epa.gov/otaq/climate/regS'heavy-duty.htm.
For more information on these and related rules, please contact EPA through EPA OTAQ
Public Inquiries at:
www.epa.gov/otaq/oms-cmt.htm
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