Cleaner air and better fuel economy is European and Japanese as well as USA with California leading the USA because of their worse than rest of USA smog problems. 15 years ago when I lived in a suburb of Paris I got a sticker for my car due to it being a low emissions vehicle. That allowed me to drive in the city on pollution alert days when most drivers were banned. USA mileage requirements are pathetic when compared to places like Western Europe and Japan. Japan's emissions regulations require using equipment that meets the latest emissions spec when working on a MOC or MOT job site. MOC and MOT applies to virtually all infrastructure jobs. A major highway construction job is taking place near my home. Out of about 100 pieces of major equipment, I spotted only 2 machines, a medium wheel loader and a small dozer, that would be allowed on the job if it was in Japan. In order to meet fuel economy requirements the majority of automobiles in many European countries are diesel. Soot has been an ongoing problem boating their buildings resulting in deterioration so they are cleaning things up. Germany looks like wind power central. France on the other hand has nuclear power plants everywhere getting at least 80% of their electricity from nuclear. Italy is big on natural gas. Most of my Italian friends have their cars converted to run on CNG with a small fuel tank for gasoline since CNG is not routinely available in all European countries. Although the emissions standards are stated in different ways in Japan, the USA, and in the EU, the engines in most of the off highway classes will meet all 3 standards. So having been at the forefront in meeting the standards for my company which sells everywhere in the world, I had to work with only 1 version and one timetable from Tier 1 through Tier 4 interim when I retired (EU Stage 1 through Stage 3B). Europe was the easiest to implement because they have very good fuel. Japan has always had low lubricity fuel so Japanese fuel injection systems have been the most reliable. USA fuel varies in quality. I could analyze warranty by dealer, state and region. That generated some interesting arguments. Engineering - tell those customers in the Southeastern USA their fuel is bad, buy better fuel, deny warranty. Product Support - customers are our lifeline so develop a filtration system that will clean up their cruddy fuel. I turned coward in my old age so when the opportunity came to retire early, I bailed out. So if you think the USA is the country that thought of cleaning up the atmosphere and the others just followed along, you haven't left the USA except maybe to go yo Mexico.
