Global Green: Why a Global Diesel Regulation for Mobile Sources Might be a Good Idea

Abstract

Air pollution knows no borders.' Prevailing winds have been found to carry particulates from Asian sources across the Pacific Ocean to the western United States, and likewise, from eastern U.S. sources across the Atlantic to Europe. 2 A primary source of this air pollution is diesel exhaust emissions. 3 Diesel exhaust emitted from mobile sources creates health and environmental concerns because it contains both particulate matter and gases that contribute to ozone (a component of smog), acid rain, and global climate change.4 According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), particulate matter alone causes 15,000 premature deaths each year in the United States.5 Generally, regulated diesel exhaust emission gases include nitrous oxides (NOx), hydrocarbons (HG), carbon monoxide (CO), and particulate matter (PM). 6 Beginning in 2014 the EPA will regulate an additional gas, carbon dioxide (CO2), a common greenhouse gas found in the exhaust of hydrocarbonburning combustion systems such as diesel engines.7 Although air pollution travels internationally, global diesel engine and