Briggs & Stratton says it could be forced to move some manufacturing jobs overseas if California adopts new pollution rules on small engines used for lawn mowers, generators and other power equipment.
The rules would require Briggs and other small-engine manufacturers to put catalytic converters on their products starting in about 2008. By 2020, the converts would cut California air pollution by 50 tons a day – the equivalent of taking 1.8 million cars off the road, according to Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.).
“The issue for Senator Feinstein is air quality,” said her spokesman, Scott Gerber.
But money and jobs are the issues for Briggs & Stratton and some other members of Congress, including Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) and Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.). The company argues it would be too expensive to reconfigure its U.S. factories to produce engines that would meet the tougher California standards.
“We could not do that electronically here,” so the company would have to ship some work overseas, said Thomas Savage, a Briggs & Stratton senior vice president.
Other small-engine manufacturers would be faced with the same issue, said Bill Harley, president, Outdoor Power Equipment Institute, Alexandria, Va. “It would be very expensive to add catalytic converters to small engines,” he said. “It could mean a total redesign” of some engines.”
The two senators say the measure is needed to protect several thousands jobs at Briggs & Stratton plants in Wisconsin and Missouri.
“In this economy in which 2.5 million manufacturing jobs have been lots, including 75,000 in Wisconsin, regulations that will force more jobs overseas need additional scrutiny,” Kohl said in a written statement. “The Environmental Protection Agency has decided not to take further action on regulating the emissions of small engines, and they are the ones who should be setting national standards, not California.”
Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel