California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. announced a petition to the EPA asking it to adopt GHG emissions standards for nonroad vehicles, engines and equipment. Other states, government agencies and environmental organizations on the petition include Connecticut, Oregon, New Jersey, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, the International Center for Technology Assessment, Center for Food Safety and Friends of the Earth.
According to the article, the nonroad engines and vehicles cited in the petition emitted 220 million tons of CO2 in 2007. Mining and construction equipment accounted for 32 percent of these emissions, followed by agricultural and industrial equipment. EPA data shows that the emissions from snowmobiles, golf carts, riding lawn mowers, agricultural equipment and off-road vehicles are growing at a faster rate than greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles or aircraft.
The petition calls on the EPA to make a determination that emissions from nonroad sources contribute to air pollution that may endanger public health and welfare, adopt greenhouse gas emissions standards for new nonroad vehicles and engines and adopt the regulations that are necessary to carry out these emissions limits.
