Strict Diesel Pollution Limits

Striking an unprecedented deal that will help clean up the air in the nation’s smoggiest cities, the Clinton administration and engine manufacturers have agreed to set a stringent new pollution standard for diesel trucks and buses.

The agreement between industry and environmental regulators is considered a breakthrough in the tumultuous politics of air pollution.

The diesel industry is promising it will overcome technological hurdles to create dramatically cleaner-burning engines by 2004.

And the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has vowed to impose the costly pollution mandate in a political climate when such regulations are unpopular.

The partnership is unprecedented in that no major pollution standard has ever been adopted for motor vehicles without a vigorous fight from the companies that make them.