Association Calls on CARB to Repeal Costly, Unneeded Off-road Diesel Rule
The California Air Resources Board (CARB) has acknowledged that it has vastly overestimated the amount of diesel pollution being emitted by the construction equipment currently in use in California. In fact, the construction industry will meet state-mandated targets for reducing pollution for many years to come even with no statewide rule forcing contractors to retire or retrofit their equipment. CARB staff recently reviewed and fixed significant flaws in its emissions data in direct response to an AGC study showing that actual diesel fuel sales in California to construction companies were far lower than the state's computer model predicted. AGC is calling on CARB to repeal its costly and unneeded rule. If AGC stops the rule in California,
other states won't be able to adopt it locally.
New estimates that CARB staff developed over the summer led the Board to agree that emissions from the off-road equipment in California's construction industry are and will remain far lower than they originally thought. CARB previously relied on the now-abandoned estimates to justify the imposition of requirements on contractors in California to reduce emissions from their off-road diesel equipment fleets. However,
in a series of workshops in late August and early September, CARB has acknowledged that California does not need its costly off-road rule to meet the air quality goals that it set for itself set in 2007.
- Without the rule, NOx emissions from off-road equipment will remain well below the levels that the Board has targeted for the foreseeable future.
- Without the rule, the PM emissions from off-road equipment will remain well below the levels that the Board has targeted for at least the next five years.
CARB Concedes Errors
After reviewing the state's original "emissions inventory," CARB's staff
conceded the following errors: there are fewer construction vehicles in operation than projected; the equipment is operating less than expected; and when it is used, it is being run at a lower power than the model assumed. Combined, all of this means that construction equipment is polluting far less than the state believed when CARB adopted regulations in 2007 to reduce diesel pollution from the construction industry.
AGC pointed out all of these errors to CARB in a
study the Association released in April that evaluates the data used to justify the off-road rule. This summer,
CARB invited AGC to the table for help in reconciling the emissions data it used to create the rule.
The news was covered by the
Sacramento Bee and
Equipment World, among others.
AGC Call for Action
When informed of the state's new forecasts,
AGC and its California contractors began calling on state air officials to repeal the rule, quickly and completely. California's construction industry continues to search for the end of the worst depression that it has suffered in more than a generation. Until the rule is gone, the ever-present threat of enforcement will continue to pressure California's contractors to spend millions of dollars, and to deplete both their bonding and their borrowing capacity, all to meet the rule's unnecessary requirements. CARB has at least five years to calmly assess its many options for meeting its PM emission targets in 2016 and subsequent years.
Background
The new "
In-Use Off-Road Diesel-Fueled Fleets Regulation" adopted in July 2007 requires construction companies across the state to retire, retrofit, repower or replace billions of dollars worth of construction equipment - all at a time when California's construction industry is still losing jobs. The regulations were originally supposed to take effect in March 2010 for companies with large fleets,
but the implementation date was indefinitely suspended back in February. CARB will propose a
revised regulation reflecting the lower numbers. The agency is expected to act on that regulation by the end of the year.
For more information, contact Mike Kennedy at (703) 837-5335 or kennedym@agc.org.
