>But, on this one, the jury is still out, and the standards may actually be counterproductive,

I'm more than inclined to agree that tier 4 might well prove to be unworkable and unreasonable. It's very easy, both technologically and economically, to reduce pollution from first generation diesels by 1/2 (like taking the sulfur out of the fuel). To reduce the result by another 1/2 is significantly more expensive in both money and technology. From then on, the costs of further reductions snowball. Eventually you reach the point where the system fails (as in no more new locomotives). About three years ago I got the impression from someone who buys locomotives for a funding agency that tier 4 had everybody really worried because it was essentially unattainable.

>And, yes, Doctor, there's going to be a fair amount of the usual trolling and misinformation on this one.

My comment about the disinformation alarms was because I can't believe in this day and age that a big corporation would be so boastful about controlling the regulators.