[Page: S4101]
---

   The following petitions and memorials were laid before the Senate and were referred or ordered to lie on the table as indicated:

   POM-522. A resolution adopted by the Board of Commissioners of the Borough of Beach Haven, New Jersey relative to the dumping of dredged material in the ocean; to the Committee on Environment and Public Works.

   POM-523. A concurrent resolution adopted by the Legislature of the State of New Hampshire relative to emission standards for heavy-duty vehicles; to the Committee on Environment and Public Works.

   House Concurrent Resolution 30

   Whereas, the state of New Hampshire has made significant efforts to improve the state's air quality and reduce air pollutant emissions from many source categories in accordance with the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990; and

   Whereas, emissions from mobile sources now contribute a majority of anthropogenic air pollutant emissions within the state and nationwide; and

   Whereas, the United States Environmental Protection Agency has recently adopted the so-called Tier 2/Gasoline Sulfur Rule which will require significantly reduced emissions from light-duty vehicles such as common passenger vehicles and from sport utility vehicles, will require sport utility vehicle emissions to be reduced to not more than those allowed for common passenger vehicles, and will require significantly decreased levels of sulfur in gasoline during the next few years; and

   Whereas, the United States Environmental Protection Agency has shown the reductions

[Page: S4102]

   Whereas, the United States Environmental Protection Agency in October, 1999 proposed a strategy to significantly reduce emissions from on-highway heavy-duty vehicles (vehicles of gross vehicle weight over 8,500 pounds), including diesel and gasoline engines used in large commercial trucks, large full-size pickup trucks, passenger vans, and the largest sport utility vehicles; and

   Whereas, this proposed strategy includes both a first phase of new emission standards for heavy-duty vehicles, and a second phase to be proposed soon which will treat vehicles and fuels as a combined system and introduce both significant additional emission reduction requirements for heavy-duty vehicles and, in order to enable new emissions-control technology on heavy trucks, requirements that the sulfur content of highway diesel fuel be reduced by approximately 90 percent from its current level of 500 parts per million (ppm); and

   Whereas, diesel vehicle emissions control technology has advanced sufficiently that diesel vehicles can cost-effectively achieve similar emission reductions to requirements recently adopted for gasoline vehicles; and

   Whereas, non-highway gasoline and diesel vehicles, including construction and farm vehicles and off-road recreational vehicles, as well as other diesel engines, can often achieve emission controls at a similar cost and with similar cost-effectiveness as highway vehicles; and

   Whereas, reductions in the sulfur content of highway diesel fuel are cost-effective and necessary to enable the use of new diesel vehicle emissions-control technology; and

   Whereas, changes in fuel formulation are most efficiently and equitably implemented on a nationwide or regionwide basis; and

   Whereas, in the absence of appropriately stringent nationally applicable standards for heavy-duty vehicle emissions and diesel fuel sulfur, many states may adopt their own standards, resulting in a complex and inefficient regulatory system for vehicles and fuels, with negative financial effects on consumers, manufacturers, and refiners; and

   Whereas, the estimated cost per ton of emissions reduced in the first phase of the United States Environmental Protection Agency's proposed strategy is less than 1/2 of the cost per ton of the recent Tier 2/Gasoline Sulfur Rule, and less than the cost of many emission reductions currently being required for electricity generation plants; and

   Whereas, additional financial incentives for vehicle users and fuel suppliers to provide emission reductions beyond those mandated by these rules are likely to produce additional cost-effective emission reductions at minimal cost; and

   Whereas, Governor Shaheen has written a letter dated February 2, 2000 supporting this concurrent resolution; now, therefore be it

   Resolved by the House of Representatives, the Senate concurring:

   That the United States Environmental Protection Agency is hereby commended for adopting its so-called Tier 2/Gasoline Sulfur Rule; and

   That the United States Environmental Protection Agency should adopt the new emissions standards for on-highway heavy-duty vehicles proposed in the first phase of its proposed heavy-duty vehicle strategy, without any significant amendment that would weaken the proposed standards; and

   That the United States Environmental Protection Agency should propose and adopt a second phase of integrated vehicle standards and diesel fuel sulfur rules similar to those outlined in its descriptions to date of its heavy-duty vehicle strategy, provided that they are at least as cost-effective as the reductions contained in the Tier 2/Gasoline Sulfur Rule; and

   That the United States Environmental Protection Agency should propose and adopt similar additional integrated vehicle standards and diesel fuel sulfur rules for non-highway gasoline and diesel vehicles, in addition to those for highway vehicles, provided that they are also at least as cost-effective as the reductions contained in the Tier 2/Gasoline Sulfur Rule; and

   That the United States Environmental Protection Agency should propose and adopt similar standards for other diesel engines, provided that they are also at least as cost-effective as the reductions contained in the Tier 2/Gasoline Sulfur rule; and

   That the United States Environmental Protection Agency should investigate options for providing financial incentives for vehicle users and fuel suppliers that produce additional emission reductions beyond those mandated by these rules in order to obtain additional cost-effective emission reductions at minimal cost; and

   That copies of this resolution be sent by the house clerk to the President of the United States, the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, the chairpersons of committees of the United States Congress having jurisdiction over the Clean Air Act, the Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency, and each member of the New Hampshire congressional delegation.

END