Reply #20: GE said to push weaker smog controls

[ozymandius]

NEW YORK (Reuters) -- General Electric Co., which is running a marketing campaign promoting itself as environmentally friendly, has pushed to weaken smog controls for railroad locomotives in rules about to be proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.

The rules, which could take effect between 2011 and 2017, are designed to cut smog and soot levels and would replace standards adopted in 1997, the paper said, adding that a proposal from the EPA could come this month.

The conglomerate told the EPA, in a December letter reviewed by the Journal, that catalytic converters used to meet EPA emissions reductions imposed earlier on trucks and off-road construction equipment have "fundamental limitations" that make their durability on locomotives unlikely, the paper said.

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The EPA wants a limit of 1.3 grams per horsepower per hour's operation of nitrogen oxides, which cause smog, the Journal said. GE is advocating a 1.9-gram limit and said in the December letter that achieving that level would require "significantly high-risk technology breakthroughs," the paper said.

http://money.cnn.com/2007/02/13/news/companies/bc.ge.epa.reut/index.htm?postversion=2007021306