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CARB Backing Down From Off-Road Diesel Rule

CEwriter

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Last Monday the California Air Resources Board (CARB) very quietly admitted that it had been wrong about off-road diesel emissions.

There will likely be revisions to the In-Use Off-Road Diesel rule (and perhaps some other diesel rules) at the board meeting in December, but don’t expect any apologies. It’s . . . complicated . . . when a government agency chokes one of its constituents’ most productive industries (in this case one state’s construction industry, mired in depression) with $13 billion in compliance costs and then your own data confirms the revelation that the regulation is based on wildly inaccurate assumptions.

It’s a long story. But kind of interesting, if you own diesel equipment.

Let me know what you think.

Larry
 

John C.

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Since they are backing down because of their mistakes, does that mean all those companies and municipalities that were fined for non compliance will have a cause of action to file suit for return of their money?

Does that also mean that someone at CARB will have to pay a price for using unqualified personnel to formulate bad science?

I am going to send the link to the article to everyone I know in Washington State. Our dictator, err governor, has been on board with California for years and was looking for the chance to add another revenue source. It appears she missed her chance.

Thanks for the link!
 

surfer-joe

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CARB should have been disbanded years ago. They have never been about looking after the people of California. CARB has never done anything but look out for themselves and their own interests.

I wouldn't say that members of CARB should be jailed, but they should suffer some harm for their outrageous mistakes and wrongful policies.
 

Tiny

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NW Missouri
I suppose some of their regs even affected Kansas as the company I work for have been retro fitting catalytic converters on all the old trucks.Wild waste of money as far as I'm concerned but the regs told my boss that we were NOT going to be able to bid work in Kansas unless the converters were in place.

So if faulty rules created a mess shouldn't they be made to pay for all the wasted money???

Oh thats right,that would still be tax money too
 

CEwriter

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My pleasure. Thanks a lot for passing it along.

Great question about those fined. I'm working on that one.

Here's some conjecture about the future (as opposed to reporting on the recent past):

Chances seem good, based just on reading between the lines on CARB's presentation and talking with the AGC's chief counsel, that CARB is going to try to back down on the reg just enough to keep the industry from forcing some kind of redress for past misdirections. But they do still have to meet the state implementation plan's (SIP) targets for air quality.

CARB will also likely argue that the off-road regulation itself was partially responsible for the changes in the inventory that the 2009 numbers describe. Hard to argue with that, considering examples such as the millions Sukut has spent repowering scrapers for the past 10 years.

It's obvious that the economy is the major reason for the difference between CARB's initial off-road-diesel emissions inventory and that based on the 2009 data. I'm not saying their initial inventory was dead on. I have some experience trying to estimate off-road diesel fleet and how much it works. Accuracy is elusive.

I'm just saying there are a lot of influences on the change in CA diesel emissions inventory. CARB didn't necessarily get it all wrong.

It's probably unrealistic to expect off-road diesel to get a free pass as a result of this inventory change.

What CARB comes up with next might seem like one compared to the original In-Use Off-Road Diesel rule. But wherever in the U.S. there are nonattainment counties for PM and NOx, state or local government is likely to implement attempts to reduce the contribution of diesel equipment to PM and NOx emissions.

L
 

John C.

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It would be my guess that CARB will promote the same rules established by the Federal law. The Tier rules had more thought involved in how to implement clean air laws without bankrupting every construction and mining company in the country.

Thanks again!
 

JDOFMEMI

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The thing that sticks in my mind is when I attended a CARB meeting a couple of years ago and they basically admitted then that all of the in use rules enacted retroactively on equipment simply sped up the reduction in emissions by a few years from what would happen anyway based on the federal rules and the natural replacement of equipment.

This shows me that CARB is more in tune with helping to justify their continued expansion of their nearly $1 BILLION dollar budget!
 

tootalltimmy

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Aug 16, 2008
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Location
Okanagan Falls B.C. Canada
British Columbia has required a diesel filter retrofit for diesel trucks from 1989-1993 models. This comes from our premier sucking up to California with its flawed CARB rules. They picked Oct.1,2010 as the magic date for compliance.
Here is the latest news.

Re: Amendment to the Diesel Retrofit Requirement Notice #01 10
On October 1, 2010, the Motor Vehicle Act Regulation, Division 40B – Heavy Vehicle Diesel
Emission Control Devices – comes into effect. Many of the required emission control components are currently unavailable for delivery to product dealers or are on back order and will not be available for installation prior to October 1, 2010.
The requirement for inspection of Diesel Emission Control Devices as stated on Notice #01 10 dated April 20, 2010 is suspended for 6 months or longer depending on component availability.


What a bunch of screwups we have running the show.
 
Last edited:

joispoi

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Connecticut
Here's an interesting article . As a question to all the contractors on here, how many times can you turn out estimates that are 340% too high and expect to be taken seriously?
 

CEwriter

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Location
St. Louis, MO
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Mary Nichols, chair of the California Air Resources Board, and Mike Kennedy, the Associated General Contractors’ lawyer, teleconferenced with the media last Thursday to announce their agreement on substantial revision to CARB’s In-Use Off-Road Diesel Emissions Rule.

The proposed changes -- subject to December board approval -- call for delay in the first compliance dates for off-road diesel equipment four years, until 2014. Rather than requiring equipment owners to comply with two different emissions standards – one for oxides of nitrogen and another for particulate matter – the revisions suggest combining NOx and PM into a single fleet average, allowing more lenient levels.

Lots more detail at the story "CARB Takes Sting Out of the Off-Road Diesel Emissions Rule" including links to CARB's presentation on the new approach.

Equipment managers closest to CARB's Off-Road Rule -- the guys mentioned in the story who are part of the Off-Road Advisory Group -- say this change is real progress.

Note: CARB and everybody else has already has "adopted" EPA's regulations. EPA's Tier system is designed to regulate new diesel engines sold in all 50 states. CARB's In-Use diesel regulations are aimed specifically at diesel engines already at work in the state. They say they can't achieve the clean-air targets that are required by the Clean Air Act if many of the old, unregulated diesel engines already in use aren't upgraded to cleaner emissions levels.

Same reason there are in-use regulations in New York City, New Jersey, Cook County, IL, cities in the Pacific Northwest and a lot of other high-population-density areas of the country. And same reason there are bid specifications on some big federal projects requiring contractors to use machines with specific levels of diesel emissions equipment. And there are more such pressures to upgrade equipment to come in air-quality nonattainment areas across the country.

This change at CARB should ease the pressure in these areas somewhat (states are allowed to adopt CARB regulations if they wish, but they have to use the exact same regulation -- no alterations allowed). But localities that believe they can prove the accuracy of their estimates of NOx and PM emissions from off-road diesels will likely plow ahead with regulations or contract specifications designed to pressure equipment owners to upgrade equipment.

Hope this helps.

L
 
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