The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is extending the deadline for Maine lobstermen to replace boat engines so they emit less pollution.
EPA Head Andrew Wheeler says the agency is rolling back the deadline to meet federal diesel engine emissions standards because the technology to improve those types of boat engines is not yet easily accessible.
“So lobster boats and pilot boats, two of those in particular, there’s no engine out there, the size engine they need for the size boat that they are.”
Wheeler spoke briefly on the matter while visiting a remediated Brownfield site under construction in Portland Thursday. He says the EPA set new Tier 4 engine standards in 2008, hoping the technology would catch up.
“The engine manufacturers just have not been able to come up with an engine for the right size and capacity for those boats.”
He said the deadline for lobster boats to meet those standards would be extended through the end of 2023 or beginning of 2024, and that if no technology is developed by that time the deadline will automatically rollover again.