Trucks, trains targeted in agreement on cutting air pollution in Southern California

10:00 PM PDT on Friday, September 21, 2007

By DAVID DANELSKI
The Press-Enterprise

State and Southern California air pollution officials announced Friday they will target pollution from trucks, locomotives and construction equipment in an attempt to meet a 2015 federal clean-air deadline.

The agreement, though short on specifics, ends a contentious year in which the officials often clashed over how to cut diesel soot and other fine-particle pollution, blamed for as many as 5,000 U.S. deaths each year.

Officials with the South Coast Air Quality Management District and the California Air Resources Board said their plan would slash emissions of oxides of nitrogen -- a key component of fine-particle pollution -- by 76 tons per day by upgrading old engines and setting tougher standards for new ones.

"This is a giant step forward that will lay the foundation that will allow us to get to clean air in Southern California," Barry Wallerstein, the South Coast district's executive director, said Friday in a telephone interview.

The strategy will require new regulations that will be developed and approved separately. Regulations affecting truckers are expected next year. Money to help make the changes happen could come from bonds, vehicle registration fees and other sources and would depend on support from lawmakers, officials said.

Under the most significant provision, trucks in California in 2014 would have to meet emissions standards of trucks that are new this year. That would require truck owners to modify their pre-2007 models with pollution-control devices -- or replace them.

Mary Nichols, Air Resources Board chairwoman, said the state would try to find ways to help truckers pay for such retrofits. A revenue source could be fees on cargo shipped through Southern California. Legislation may be required to impose such a fee, she said.

The strategy announced Friday is part of an air quality management plan that must be submitted to the U.S. Environment Protection Agency every three years.

As part of the agreement, the air board and South Coast district will lobby the federal government to reduce locomotive emissions by 2014 or provide California money to cut pollution some other way. Neither California agency has jurisdiction over railroads.

The strategy also would place newly developed smog-reduction equipment on Metrolink commuter trains.

In addition, off-road construction equipment used in the Southern California air basin and other high-pollution areas would face stricter emissions regulations than equipment used in other parts of the state.

The agreement also would target pollution from fireplaces and restaurant charbroilers.

Nichols said the strategy announced Friday focuses strongly on diesel trucks because most other polluting industries already are stringently regulated.

"It's time for them (the trucking industry) to step up to the plate and do their fair share," Nichols said.

Gregory Owen, the former president of the California Trucking Association and owner of Ability-Trimodal trucking company in Carson, was taken aback by Nichols' statement.

"We've been stepping up to the plate for 15 years," he said.

Since the early 1990s, California-based truckers have paid higher prices for cleaners fuels required by the state air board. Meanwhile, their competitors buy cheaper fuels out of state, said Owen, whose fleet has about 100 trucks.

Stricter rules will be most costly for smaller companies and independent truckers, he said.

The plan would also take advantage of measures California is developing to reduce global warming. For example, truck refrigeration units would be plugged into electrical outlets during loading and unloading, rather than relying on the idling truck engine to keep the unit cold.

The South Coast district has been demanding that the state air board seek tougher regulations for diesel trucks and other pollution sources that fall under state jurisdiction. Catherine Witherspoon, the air board's executive officer until recently, argued that tougher regulations would "break the bank" of the affected industries.

Witherspoon and air board Chairman Robert F. Sawyer left the agency during the summer.

Sawyer was replaced by Nichols, a UCLA law professor, who said the air board staff worked hard and creatively to reach agreement with the South Coast district.

"It was a high priority when I was appointed to break the logjam and have the two agencies working together," Nichols said in a telephone interview Friday.

Friday's announcement drew praise from environmental groups that have been pushing the Air Resources Board for cleaner trucks and trains.

"Mary Nichols deserves credit for reinvigorating a can-do attitude in the ARB," said Tim Carmichael, policy director of the Coalition for Clean Air, which represents health and environment groups.