Contractors caught between new diesel regulations

Source: Energy Digital

Date :6/4/2007 2:52:50 PM

California Environmental Board and contractors argue over regulations for off-road diesel equipment.

The California Environmental Protection Agency’s Air Resources Board is contemplating landmark regulations for off-road diesel equipment that contractors believe would cause great harm to the industry.

“What we have seen of the proposal so far is sending chills down the collective spine of the industry,” writes Bill Davis, editorial and information services for the Southern California Contractors Association.

According to a report released in April delineating the reasons for the proposed regulations by the staff of the Air Resources Board, the intent of the regulations is to reduce emissions of particulate matter and oxides of nitrogen (NOx). The report asserts the proposal, if enacted, would affect 180,000 off-road diesel vehicles in the state in industries as diverse as construction, air travel, manufacturing, landscaping, and ski resorts.

“The regulation would affect the warehouse with one diesel forklift, the landscaper with a fleet of a dozen diesel mowers, the county that maintains rural roads, the landfill with a fleet of dozers, as well as the large construction firm or government fleet with hundreds of diesel loaders, graders, scrapers and rollers,” reads the report.

The proposal breaks fleets down by size from smallest to largest and for each sets emission rate targets. The strictest requirements would be for the largest fleets and the less restrictive for the smallest fleets. The targets decline over time, requiring owners/operators to reduce emissions as time goes on. Larger fleets would be expected to start meeting targets as early as 2010.

To meet the targets owners/operators would have to purchase new equipment, retrofit older equipment, or designate a “dirty” vehicle as a low-use vehicle.

The report argues the regulation change would reduce 48 tons per day of NOx and 5.2 tons per day of matriculate matter statewide by 2020. The report also asserts the regulations would prevent approximately 4,000 premature deaths, tens of thousands of cases of asthma and other lower respiratory symptoms, and save $18 to $26 billion in avoided premature death and health costs.

However, contractors in California allege they would pay a heavy price under the proposed regulations. According to Davis, writing for the Southern California Contractors Association, the regulations would destroy the used equipment market making between 60 and 70 percent of the existing fleet obsolete. This would result in destroying the net asset value of the entire industry, he adds.

Further, Davis writes the regulations would most likely cost $60 billion, which is far more than the staff report’s claim of $3 to $3.4 billion spread over the years 2009 to 2030.

For more information go to: http://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/ordiesel/ordiesel.htm