Trucking Companies Cant Afford Tougher CARB Regulations

[Mike]

With the California Air Resources Board poised to adopt a new rule to cut diesel truck pollution next week, local trucking companies Wednesday highlighted the economic burden it would impose on local businesses and an industry already feeling the squeeze from high fuel costs and the recession.

The rule would require truck owners to install pollution controls starting in 2010 and buy newer, cleaner trucks beginning in 2012. It is estimated to cost trucking companies $5 billion over the next decade.

Truck owners say the costs are too high to absorb in the short amount of time they have to comply. They’ve proposed an alternative proposal that would delay compliance timelines and allow a more gradual phase-in of cleaner trucks.

Here’s what the various sides had to say:

 

[Mike]

Trucking group asks CARB to delay on-road rule

A coalition of nearly 100 California companies is asking the state’s Air Resources Board to delay approval of its proposed diesel truck retrofit rule.
Members of Driving Toward a Cleaner California say that delaying the rule will protect truck owners, grocers, contractors and other businesses, which already are fighting a recessed economy.

Commonly referred to as the retrofit rule, CARB’s “in-use on-road diesel truck rule” phases in model-year engine emission requirements continually for any trucks traveling on state highways. CARB officials are scheduled to adopt the regulation at their board meeting Dec. 11-12.

The in-use diesel rule has drawn attention, particularly after transportation companies disputed CARB’s estimate that it would mandate between $4.4 billion and $5.4 billion in diesel engine replacement costs.

The proposed rule would require older trucks to meet 2007 and 2010 emissions standards between 2012 and 2022, though it allows for a series of compliance options. The regulation addresses both diesel particulate matter and oxides of nitrogen.

The group Driving Toward a Cleaner California announced in a press release Tuesday that it will ask CARB “to consider the current economic climate and adopt a rule that cleans the air without seriously harming the goods movement sector of the economy.”

On Wednesday, the coalition publicly asked CARB to adopt a different retrofit rule that would allow more flexibility, including:

• Exempting older model trucks and buses that don’t go above certain mileage thresholds;
• Require CARB to “develop a personalized compliance schedule for businesses subject to two or more CARB rules” based on financial impacts of all applicable environmental rules; and
• Require CARB to investigate and address all operational and other safety considerations of retrofit technology, and to require CARB to exempt equipment that may be unsafe.

For more information about the coalition’s proposed retrofit rule, visit Driving Toward a Cleaner California.


Source: Land Line