JEANNE MESERVE, CNN ANCHOR: Help is on the way if you feel big trucks and buses are belching black smoke into the air and right into your lungs. The Environmental Protection Agency says soot and smog are to blame for 15,000 premature deaths each year, and 400,000 asthma attacks. And the EPA today will propose cutting truck and bus exhaust pipe pollution by 95 percent over 10 years. The plan calls for eliminating almost all sulfur from diesel fuel, and for new equipment on large tractor-trailer rigs, heavy-duty trucks and large buses. The American Trucking Association said the EPA has gone overboard and that the proposals will bring higher fuel prices and shipping costs. Kelly Wallace is over at the White House for CNN. And, Kelly, why are we seeing these rules proposed now?</s>KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jeanne, this is something the that has been subject of intense lobbying around Washington for months. And the White House is doing this now because the EPA says it is committed to getting these rules into effect and finalized before President Clinton leaves office. Now several groups who say they were working with the EPA on these new rules are not happy. Including the large and small refinery companies, who say they agreed to cut the amount of sulfur in diesel fuel by 90 percent. But they say the 97 percent that the EPA is proposing is much too much and that it would lead to an increase in fuel and shipping costs that would be eventually passed on to the consumer. So they plan to fight it -- Jeanne.</s>MESERVE: Kelly, when could these rules go into effect?</s>WALLACE: Well, what happens is: they must be open to public comment. So the EPA will have five public hearings around the country. After that it says it would have 45 days of public comment and then it hopes to finalize these rules by the end of the year -- Jeanne.</s>MESERVE: Kelly Wallace, at the White House, thanks.
EPA to Propose Plan to Cut Large Truck and Bus Emissions