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June 5, 2002 4:45 PM, EDT

The American Trucking Associations will seek to postpone – or lessen the effects of – an Oct. 1, 2002 deadline for new, lower-emitting truck engines dictated by a series of 1998 consent decrees.

The action was ordered by the association's executive committee, ATA said.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency negotiated settlements with seven heavy-duty engine manufacturers that were entered in court as consent decrees.

The settlements, reached after the manufacturers were charged with tampering with emission control devices, called for a 15-month speedup in the scheduled introduction of new engine technologies that reduce nitrogen oxide levels.

The ATA’s executive committee, in a special May 29 meeting, voiced its concern over the lack of industry lead-time to test the new engines, as well as questions about reliability, reduced fuel economy, higher maintenance costs and impacts to the U.S. economy.

The committee directed ATA staff to become involved in the issue and to seek to either postpone the deadline or to "“mitigate the effects" of the decrees.