The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) wants to make it easier for companies that sell fuel conversion systems to do so. Conversion systems allow vehicles originally intended to run on gasoline or petroleum diesel to run on an alternative fuel, typically naturals gas or propane, alcohol or electricity.
It seems that there's a lot of red tape that these companies have to cut through to get approval for their systems, and EPA officials are proposing a new, refined set of regulations to make the process more streamlined. Obviously, their first priority as an agency is to "P" the "E," so they're not relaxing any of the environmental safeguards in place that ensure acceptable emission levels from converted vehicles. The changes mostly deal with "A" side of things, procedural guidelines and economic impediments.
The proposed rule would cover conversions of light-duty vehicles and heavy-duty highway vehicles and engines. Most of the proposed rule changes have to do with flexibilities on standards with consideration of the age and engine of the vehicle being converted. From the looks of things, vehicles one-year old and newer will still have to go through the more stringent certification process. Intermediate-age vehicles and vehicles that are outside their useful life expectancy of ten years would still have to submit emissions data, but wouldn't have apply for annual re-certification.
[Source: Green Car Congress | Image: biofriendly – C.C. 2.0]
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