Anyone who’s been at a major construction site lately can attest to one thing – they often stink. That’s why proposed rules from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to require off-road diesel vehicles to run more efficiently and pollute less are just what’s needed this Earth Day. The biggest problem with the new standards is that they won’t begin to go into effect until 2008 and won’t be fully implemented until 2014. The long implementation period is necessary, however, to get engine manufacturers and others in industry to support the measure.

The rules, which would apply to bulldozers, tractors, logging equipment and other off-road vehicles, would require manufacturers to build engines that remove more particles in emissions linked to asthma and other respiratory ailments. Fuel refiners would have to produce cleaner diesel fuel. Just as lead in gasoline damaged catalytic converters and was phased out of automobile fuel, sulfur can contaminate emissions controls systems used in diesel systems. So, the sulfur content of diesel fuel would be cut from the current 3,400 parts per million to just 15 ppm by 2010. Similar rules for trucks, buses and other on-road diesel vehicles are already being implemented.

The EPA wants to finalize the rules by next spring and is now collecting public comment on them. The stricter regulations, which EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman calls “the most far-reaching diesel programs in the world today,” deserve the support of the public and lawmakers.

The 1 million diesel engines affected by the rules make up less than 5 percent of the U.S. vehicle fleet but account for 44 percent of diesel particulate matter and 12 percent of total nitrogen oxides emissions nationwide. These pollutants are linked to asthma and other breathing difficulties. The new rules would reduce these emissions by more than 90 percent. EPA estimates that by reducing these emissions 9,600 premature deaths and almost a million lost work days can be saved each year by 2030.

Among those who will benefit most from the new rules are construction workers, loggers and others who daily work in proximity to diesel engines. They will likely see immediate improvements in their health, suffering fewer respiratory problems from breathing diesel fumes. This, in turn, will benefit businesses that will have healthier workers with fewer workers’ compensation claims.

The rules are good for workers, good for the public and good for the planet and should go forward.