Air board acts over objections

Pollution-control regulations are too tough, truckers say

By E.J. Schultz
Bee Capitol Bureau

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SACRAMENTO -- California regulators Friday approved landmark rules for heavy-duty trucks and buses aimed at curbing air pollution and gases that contribute to global warming.

The Air Resources Board acted despite objections by truckers in the Central Valley and elsewhere who say they can't afford to buy the smog controls or new rigs during a recession.

But environmentalists and the valley's top air regulator praised the move as a necessary step to meet federal pollution targets.

"There's no way the valley could come into attainment ... without this rule," said Seyed Sadredin, executive director of the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District.

The diesel rules will speed up the replacement of thousands of polluting trucks and buses that stay on the road for decades and are not as clean as newer models that have tougher, federally mandated emissions standards.

Nearly a million vehicles will have to be replaced or retrofitted with smog traps, filters or cleaner-burning technology beginning in 2011. By 2014, all trucks must have soot filters, and by the time the rule is fully implemented in 2023, no truck or bus in California could be older than 13 years unless it had equipment to cut nitrogen oxide emissions.

Big diesel trucks are a major contributor to smog and soot pollution. Most of the trucks and buses on the road today have few emission controls or none, according to the Air Resources Board.

Low-mileage agriculture vehicles and specialty farm vehicles have later deadlines to comply, but all the trucks must meet the standard by 2023. The rules also call for school buses made before April 1, 1977, to be off the road by 2012.

State will save billions

The regulations will cost the trucking industry $5.5 billion, according to air board estimates. But supporters said the state will save many more billions of dollars in health-care costs, especially in the valley, one of the nation's dirtiest air basins.

The board separately approved rules aimed at curbing greenhouse gases by increasing fuel efficiency. The regulation applies to tractors pulling box trailers 53 feet or longer. Beginning in 2010, equipment with model year 2011 or older must include fuel-efficient technology, such as aerodynamic devices to reduce wind drag.

Truckers unleashed a fierce lobbying campaign against the rules.

"The costs are astronomical. Nobody can survive it. Most businesses are going to be out of business," said Jim Gandulgia, owner of a trucking company in Fresno.

Protests from truckers dominated the two-day hearing. But clean-air activists also made their pleas to the board.

The Merced-Mariposa County Asthma Coalition took a group to testify at the Sacramento hearing. Melissa Kelly-Ortega, a program associate and Merced resident who has two children with asthma, said the truck rule gives "a glimmer of hope that our children will be able to breathe clean air."

Fuel savings a plus

Truckers pushed for an alternate proposal that would give them more time to comply. But air board chairwoman Mary Nichols said the delays would keep the state from meeting federal clean-air deadlines.

Larger trucking firms are expected to have an easier time complying than smaller operators.

Richard Raham, general manager for Dot Foods Inc. in Modesto, said the Illinois-based food distributor already has the filters on most of its trucks in California and is moving forward with upgrading the rest.

The company runs 660 trucks in the nation and also will comply with the measures to improve mileage and reduce greenhouse gases, he said.

"It is going to be costly, but if it can increase fuel economy savings, we can see the benefits of it," Raham said.

Fred Burtschi, owner of an agricultural trucking firm in Riverbank, expected it will cost up to $90,000 to put the emission controls on six of his trucks with older diesel engines.

"What they are trying to implement on the trucks is crazy," he said. "They have trouble retrofitting the trucks to comply and the engines are not designed to handle the extra load. The fuel mileage has gone down 10 percent on those (retrofitted trucks)."

The board agreed to some minor changes, including allowing owners who are downsizing fleets to earn more time to meet targets on their remaining trucks. Also, the board promised to take a fresh look at the rules at the end of next year, including examining the economic fallout.

More than $1.5 billion in state grants and loans are available for the upgrades, but truckers say that's not enough.

The Associated Press and Modesto Bee staff writer Ken Carlson contributed to this report.