TORONTO– Apples and oranges. That’s how Brian Mormino describes the difference between the emissions regimes of the previous decade and the one that was launched last year and will enter its second phase in 2020. Executive director, worldwide environmental strategy and compliance at Cummins, he says all the hard work and heartache of dealing with engine emissions from 2002 on to 2010 has left us well equipped for the next steps.

We’ve already taken the first of those steps, starting a year ago, with Phase 1 of the fuel economy and greenhouse gas regulations as decreed by President Obama. Back in 2010, with so-called ‘criteria’ pollutants like nitrogen oxide (NOx) under control, he ordered the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Highway Traffic Administration to move on. He told them to cut carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, along with other gases in lesser amounts, while improving fuel economy in medium- and heavy-duty trucks.

The challenge was anything but small, the timeline short, but the 2014 targets were met, largely because so much had already been achieved. And the next target in 2017 will be met as well.

“I’d like to help people understand that the industry is in a great place from the standpoint of technology and the future,” Mormino told me in a lengthy recent interview. “What I mean by that is that we now have diesel particulate filters, we have SCR systems, we’re taking care of emissions in the exhaust. And we have learned and improved on those systems.

“And so when we look at meeting the first GHG and fuel-consumption standard in 2013, a year early, how did Cummins do that? We did it by improving the engine architecture that we already had in place. And what are we going to do for 2017? We’re going to improve on the engine architecture that we already have in place. And I would even venture to say that when we look at 2021, we’re going to improve on the engine architecture that we already have in place.”