The Environmental Protection Agency has given California a waiver that will allow the state to cut emissions by requiring a new type of small engine that reduces pollution.And why should Missouri care? Well, maybe it won't.
But the key to all of this happening was Missouri's senior Sen. Kit Bond.
The Associated Press reports:
The EPA action Monday ended several years of political dispute driven by Republican Sen. Kit Bond, whose state of Missouri is home to two factories owned by Briggs & Stratton Corp., the nation's largest small-engine maker.
Briggs & Stratton had resisted installing catalytic converters on its engines, and Bond had sought to block California from instituting its regulation. The state has unique authority under the Clean Air Act to set tougher pollution standards than the federal government, once it gets an EPA waiver.
Bond backed off under pressure from Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., but he did succeed in blocking other states from being able to copy California's rule, something the Clean Air Act normally allows. Instead, he required the EPA to write a national standard.
Bond had questioned whether mowers with catalytic converters could spark fires, but an EPA study earlier this year found there was no safety problem.
1 comment:
This is a rare occasion:
I applaud what Bond is doing. This handwringing over pollution from lawnmowers, is useless and nonproductive. Waste of time and resources. The planet is NOT going to die if we don't do this.
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