WASHINGTON, (May 11, 2004) — The Bush administration will finalize rules today to cut air pollution from off-road tractors and other such diesel vehicles, the Environmental Protection Agency announced.

The plan mirrors clean air rules that already in effect for on-highway diesel trucks and buses, and would apply to over 650,000 vehicles that operate off-road, including bulldozers, tractors, portable generators, forklifts and aircraft service equipment.

Starting in 2008, off-road diesel engine manufacturers such as Cummins and Caterpillar will be required to strip emissions by up to 90 per cent. Fuel refiners will also be required to produce diesel fuel by 2012 that is 99 per cent free of smog-causing nitrogen oxides under the new rules.

Under the rules, sulfur content in diesel fuel will drop to 500 parts per million (ppm) in 2007 and 15 ppm in 2012. Sulfur levels in diesel fuel are now unregulated and can be as high as 3,400 ppm, the EPA said.

Off-road diesel equipment emits about 25 per cent of nitrogen oxides from U.S. mobile sources, the EPA said.

— with files from Reuters