EEC starts work on lorry emissions
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AFTEp. agreeing controls on exhaust emissions for private cars, the EEC has now started to work on a similar directive which will apply to dieselpowered lorries.
Officials at the Brussels commission began to draft the new legislation when they returned from their summer holidays with the aim of completing proposals by the end of this year.
"We will be looking as emissions of carbon monoxide (CO), unburnt hydrocarbons (HC) and nitrogen
oxides (I s 1 0 X ) as well as diesel smoke", an official told CMlast week.
The EEC expects very tough resistance from lorry manufacturers because of fears that the new measures will hit fuel economy.
"But we hope that we can .find ways of controlling emissions without greatly affecting running costs", the official said.
The EEC has been closely studying the situation in America where there are varying emission standards for lorries according to their weight and power.
However, a fairly large proportion of US lorries run on petrol while in the EEC lorry fleets are almost entirely diesel powered.
Diesels, which produce less CO and HC, require different control devices.
The EEC envisages a twostage plan — a 20 per cent reduction in exhaust gases starting next year and, from 1989, a further reduction for lorries weighing more than 3.5 tonnes.