New EPA Standards for 2010 mean Cats for lawn mowers, boats, garden equipment

[Syclone0044]

Well this pretty much sucks.

EPA Tightens Standards For Non-Vehicle Exhaust Emissions
9/4/2008

By Siobhan Hughes Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
ST. PAUL, MINN. (Dow Jones)--The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday issued long-awaited rules aimed at reducing pollution from lawn mowers, speed boats and other garden and marine equipment.

The agency estimated that the new standards would save about 190 million gallons of gasoline a year and improve public health by lowering the release of emissions such as nitrogen oxide into the atmosphere. The rules will take effect in 2010 and 2011.

"EPA's new small engine standards will allow Americans to cut air pollution as well as grass," EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson said in a statement. "These standards help fight smog in our neighborhoods and waterways as we continue to improve the environmental landscape."

The EPA said that manufacturers would likely for the first time use catalytic converters in many small types of watercraft and in lawn and garden equipment. The EPA said it determined that the strategy was feasible and safe.

The new small-engine rules have been long-awaited by environmentalists, who see the standards as an instance of tough regulation by the Bush administration's EPA. The EPA issued the new standards in the last four months of the Bush administration, which has been attacked by environmentalists who say that the agency hasn't done enough to curb pollution. The EPA estimates the annual costs to implement the standards would be $236 million, when fuel savings are included in the calculations.

I wonder what all this smog equipment is going to do to retail prices, power output, and repair costs? Obviously the $236 million ultimately comes right out of consumers & taxpayers pocketbooks.