Comment Log Display

December 10, 2008

Chairwoman Mary Nichols and Members of the Board
California Air Resources Board
1001 I Street
Sacramento, CA 95812

RE: SUPPORT for a STRONG DIESEL TRUCK RULE!!!

Dear Chairwoman Nichols and Board Members:

As a Public Health Agency, you already know it is your job to come
up with various ways to clean the air that Californians breathe.  
Californians appreciate the work you do and want to work with you
to make sure all of our friends and families can breathe clean air
in our lifetimes.    

This board recently passed a rule that would require all
construction fleets and operators over time to transition to
cleaner equipment.  Lynn Terry stated in November 2007, “It’s  a
very important rule from a public health standpoint in terms of
diesel particulate and it’s also very critical for ozone because
the oxides of nitrogen that come out of diesel engines for this
[the San Joaquin Valley] region are the most important pollutant to
be regulating.”  This is also why a strong diesel truck rule is so
important.

The Diesel Truck Rule has had more public outreach than any rule I
have heard about in the last two years.  It has more money
earmarked to go toward retrofits and engine replacements and more
money will be there for this specific rule in the upcoming years.  
 We need this rule to pass.  

Save lives, prepare for the future, and pass a strong diesel truck
rule!

Passing a STRONG Diesel Truck Rule would save thousands of lives
as shown in the November 2008 California State University –
Fullerton study as well as assist California in balancing its
budget.  Let’s not be short-sighted.  Instead, let’s plan for a
healthier future by passing a strong diesel truck rule that does
NOT include exemptions.

San Joaquin Valley (SJV) residents worked diligently on the 2007
Ozone Plan where we were promised a “fast track” to clean air.  A
SJV Ozone SIP Task Force was formed, and we were told that we were
going to penny, nickel and dime our emissions so we could breathe
clean air before 2024…  In fact, after the California Air Resources
Board voted to move forward with the diesel truck rule last
September in Diamond Bar, Seyed Sadredin (SJV - APCO) noted that
the residents of the San Joaquin Valley would be able to breathe
clean air before 2018. In a statement dated September 27, 2007,
Seyed Sadredin wrote, “We will and we shall achieve clean air as
measured by the 1997 NAAQS for low level ozone for SJV before
2018.”  Signed by Mr. Sadredin, Air Pollution Control District
Officer with the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District
and witnessed by Barry Wallerstein.   Without a STRONG diesel truck
rule, we will not be able to breathe clean air until well after
2024, and the black box truly will become our coffin.  

I understand the financial burden that truckers will face.  We are
all faced with really tough financial choices - now more than ever:
paying bills or buying groceries; buying our child’s asthma
medication or telling ourselves, “She’ll be okay” and then hoping
she will be.  Will CARB, as a Public Health Agency, consider a
Relocation Loan Program for those of us who have children / family
members with respiratory diseases and need to consider moving out
of the polluted area we live in?  
Our families need to breathe clean air.  As Lisa Kayser-Grant has
stated, "Mothers carry tremendous guilt raising their children in
an area that we know is so polluted."  

At the CARB Community Meeting in Merced, November 2007, one person
asked if we would go to various agencies (such as DOW Chemical) and
ask them to apply a $0.30 or $0.50 surcharge that would go toward
an engine retrofit.  Is this something we could do to offset the
costs of this rule for truckers? 
 
Personally, I would be willing to pay more at the pump if that
meant my family could breathe clean air sooner!!!

On another issue, I am deeply disappointed to hear that at least
one county in California, Mendocino County, passed a resolution to
oppose the implementation of any new ARB regulations.  

Thank you for doing the right thing and passing a strong diesel
truck rule!
Sincerely,

Melissa J. Kelly-Ortega
Program Associate
Merced/Mariposa County Asthma Coalition