Comment Log Display

May 23, 2007

 

WRITTEN COMMENTS ON OFF-ROAD REGULATION

BY Jeb Stuart, CIAQC Vice President

 

The construction industry fully understands the serious health
implications of diesel emissions and appreciates the need to
reduce as quickly as feasible NOx and PM emissions from its
equipment.

 

Because of these implications, ARB staff’s recommended regulation
could cause over two thirds of the privately owned construction
companies in California to shut down or at least downsize from a
large fleet to a small fleet, primarily because:

 

    * This regulation will require large fleet owners to replace
or repower most of their vehicles with Tier 3 equipment commencing
in 2010 and again with Tier 4 equipment commencing in 2014 or 2015
in order to comply with the 2020 fleet average. As you have heard
in the testimony, only the largest, most progressive companies
have the resources to accomplish this.

 

    * Your staff’s last minute addition of a NOx emission
reduction requirement will eliminate even these companies from
compliance.

 

Missing from the staff report is a detailed evaluation of the
economic impact on the construction industry, and in particular
smaller family owned contracting companies that represent 90% of
the total. According to our numbers, the regulation will cost the
California construction industry an additional $13 billion to
comply. Previous speakers have documented the reasons for the
discrepancy between your staff’s $3 billion estimate and ours.  

 

The 33 page draft regulation plus another 203 pages of technical
support is so complex and overpowering that very few contractors
will understand it, much less be able to comply with it. In my
opinion, the small amount of emission reductions gained by this
imperious command and control approach will be lost because of
extended delays in implementation caused by major enforcement
problems.      

 

For those reasons CIAQC is in the final stages of completing a
simplified, achievable alternative that will provide equipment
manufacturers the additional five years they need to produce
sufficient Tier 4 powered vehicles to meet the final emission
reduction requirement and give fleet owners the flexibility to
decide how to comply with it in terms of vehicle replacements,
repowers and retrofits.

 

CIAQC recognizes that your Board will want to refer this
alternative to your staff for its recommendations before making a
decision. The additional two months you are taking should allow
time for that process. CIAQC would also suggest that your chairman
consider appointing an advisory committee composed of Board
members, staff, environmentalists, construction industry
representatives and the general public. This committee could
review the points made today and advise your Board on its
conclusions and recommendations prior to the July ARB meeting.