Epa Paper

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             The Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) has admitted that the new EPA standards are aggressive and present significant technical and commercial challenges to manufacturers of farm engines and equipment. The new standards will probably require the use of new emission control systems such as particulate traps and catalytic converters. This will add an additional$2600-$3000 per unit. Large scale farming operations would be considerably impacted by the additional charge. In response to the new standards tractor technology must take into consideration new fuel specifications to use cleaner burning fuel. The goal of the manufacturers is to provide farmers with options such as rebuilding/replacing/re-powering or retrofitting.
             Purchasing all new equipment is not an option. Therefore the State of California has instituted incentive programs to help the farmer with this new financial burden.
             STATE ASSISTANCE.
             The State of California has instituted incentive programs to help the farmer with the financial burden of retrofitting. The programs currently available to agriculture include the Carl Moyer Program which provides grants for cleaner heavy duty equipment, the Valley Emergency Clean Air Program (VECAP) which provides incentives for low emission engines, pumps and equipment; and the Agricultural Peak-load Reduction Program which provides incentives to reduce electrical demand in the state by replacing old electric motors with more efficient motors or alternatively fueled engines. (California Farm Bureau Federation Ag Alert Issue Date March 6, 2002).
             The California Energy Commission has programs to allow regular testing of pumping equipment and to defer some of the expenses to repair pumps to optimize use.
             Even with the state agency assistance farmers sent the original proposal back to court when they felt that the efforts put forth by the farmers to date had been ignored.