Pollution rules get go-ahead

WASHINGTON – Federal appeals court judges upheld tougher pollution controls on snowmobiles Tuesday but asked why the Environmental Protection Agency rule would exempt almost a third of newly built snowmobiles.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia rejected claims by the snowmobile industry that the EPA had no authority to require new snowmobiles to have cleaner burning engines to reduce air pollution.

The ruling came in a lawsuit filed by two environmental groups who argued that the 2002 EPA rule that required new snowmobiles to have on average a 50 percent reduction in tailpipe emissions by 2012 was too lenient.

The EPA acknowledged it had written the regulation in such a way that manufacturers would not have to equip about 30 percent of their snowmobiles with cleaner engines. The industry said to require 100 percent compliance would be too costly and force manufacturers to stop making certain models.

While letting the regulation stand, the three-judge panel said Tuesday the EPA must clarify its analysis and say why it concluded that some of the snowmobiles could not be equipped with the advanced control technology to curtail pollution or why some models could not be simply discontinued.

James Pew, an attorney for the environmentalists, said the ruling means the court “found EPA’s rationale didn’t make sense,” and it would have to produce a compelling case for letting manufacturers avoid the new requirements on many of their machines. “Snowmobiles are the dirtiest vehicles on the road or off the road,” Pew said.