Various sectors within the auto aftermarket are pushing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in different directions with regard to a new ozone standard.
Last December, the EPA proposed lowering the ozone standard, last set in 2008, from its current 75 parts per billion (ppb) to between 65-70 ppb. Emissions of nitrogen oxide (NOx) and volatile organic chemicals (VOCs) mix when exposed to sunlight to form ground-level ozone, also known as smog. The Clean Air Act requires the EPA to consider changes to an air standard every five years, and the agency has already missed that deadline for ozone.
The auto industry will be affected because cars emit nitrogen oxide, and service stations use brake cleaners and other solvents containing VOCs, which they purchase from retailers or wholesalers. Cities and counties whose ozone levels exceed a standard must come up with strategies to lower those levels, or risk losing federal highway funds. Common strategies are requiring retailers to sell reformulated solvents, upgrading service station inspection and maintenance programs and upgrading statewide aftermarket catalytic converter requirements.
The Manufacturers of Emission Controls Association (MECA) said the California aftermarket catalytic converter standard, established in 2009, could be adopted by the EPA as a federal standard, thereby substantially driving down tailpipe emissions of nitrogen oxide. The MECA favors a new 65 ppb ozone standard.
On the other hand, both the Auto Care Association and the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) want the standard kept where it is. NADA says its members are already doing their part by using lower solvent content brake cleaners, windshield washer fluids, etc. In addition, dealerships with autobody shops now comply with rules limiting the solvent content of body shop paint systems.
"Together, these steps have significantly reduced ozone-producing emissions from dealership service and autobody operations," says Douglas I. Greenhaus, chief regulatory counsel, Environment, Health, and Safety, NADA.
Greenhaus points out that the EPA has not even implemented the 2008 standard fully. The agency is just now setting deadlines for states to submit state implementation plans, called SIPs, which lay out which strategies a state will use to lower emissions of NOx and VOCs in what are called non-attainment areas.
Currently, 227 counties are designated as non-attainment for the 75 ppb standard. Under the proposed rule the EPA issued last December, the number of counties designated as non-attainment would rise to 358 under the 70 ppb standard and to 558 under the 65 ppb standard.
Jackie Ploch, air and noise work leader for the Texas Department of Transportation, explains that non-attainment areas classified as higher than "marginal" non-attainment must develop inspection/maintenance (I/M) programs. The classifications above margin are moderate, serious, severe and extreme.
She says that 75 percent of the non-attainment areas under the 2008 standard are marginal. So extrapolation would seem to indicate that a significant number of new cities and counties would need to develop I/M programs under a 70 ppb or 65 ppb standard.
The EPA estimates that the additional annualized costs of achieving a 65 ppb standard for areas other than California would be about $15.4 billion per year of which about $4.2 billion would be “known” controls and about $11.3 billion would be “unknown” controls.
Aaron Lowe, senior vice president, Regulatory and Government Affairs Auto Care Association, says, "These potentially non-existent control methods could also make it nearly impossible for businesses and communities to reach the required standards resulting in fines that could put auto care industry organizations out of business."
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