I made a long continuation of the above post that was full of speculation of 'what may be.
It was based off a link I found earlier that I will fetch in a few minutes. I didn't read all of the loopholes in its entirety which is paste copied below.
It clearly says right above this loophole under EPA phase 3 of handheld equipment (in the link) that 'all identical physical characteristics or with similar emmisions, shall be put into one group family and has to be under limits to be in compliance.
So the family would be refused entry.
....BUT if the manufacturer has more than one family like. ..oh I don't know ..All of them. Then they can 'trade' ("credits") carbon credits only among each other.
I was wrestling with that one and was going to suggest that at the end of well this original post since this world runs on carbon credits. So in actual fact a company doesn't have to make any improvements to emmisions but do have to buy another companies surplus. (Carbon credits) to wear a sticker that says meets US emissions standards. It all works on an average. As long as (in this case) US reduction is met. It's interesting it's done amongst themselves. Now it makes me interested more in which companies own what? I'm sure you guys know??
For the benefit of those that may not be familiar with the carbon credits definition.
A carbon credit can be earned by keeping a metric ton of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere for a years time. So if you buy a carbon credit then that's a permit to emit a ton of Carbon emissions or green house gases = .....
Trees can be worth more standing than logging them these days because trees process carbon dioxide. I believe a 2 ft dia tree can = 1 CC per ever year it stands.
Averaging, Banking and Trading
To give manufacturers flexibility in meeting the exhaust and evaporative standards for small engines, EPA allows averaging, banking and trading:
- Averaging applies only to manufacturers that make more than one engine family. Averaging allows a manufacturer to certify engine families based on the average emissions over all of the manufacturer’s families, in a given model year. Thus if one or more engine families are above the applicable emission standard but another engine family is certified below the same emission standard, and if the emissions averaged over all of the manufacturer’s families are at or below the level of the emission standard, the manufacturer can certify all of the families. (For more information on averaging, see 40 CFR 90.204for Phases 1 and 2 and 40 CFR 1054.710 for Phase 3).
- Banking allows an engine manufacturer to retain credits for one model year, and use them for averaging or trading in a future model year. (For more information on banking, see 40 CFR 90.205 for Phases 1 and 2 and 40 CFR 1054.715 for Phase 3).
- Trading allows different engine manufacturers to exchange of emission credits among themselves. The credits can then can be used for averaging purposes, banked for future use, or traded to another engine manufacturer. (For more information on trading, see 40 CFR 90.206 for Phases 1 and 2 and 40 CFR 1054.720 for Phase 3).
