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newsrel -- ARB receives additional funding to clean up state trucks, buses

Posted: 19 May 2008 09:41:07
Please consider the following Air Resources Board press release
announcing new money made available to reduce the emissions of
diesel exhaust. You can also review the release here:
http://www.arb.ca.gov/newsrel/nr051908.htm .
Thank You
Dimitri Stanich
ARB/PIO 

Release 08-40
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 19, 2008
	  	  	
Leo Kay
(916) 849-9843
www.arb.ca.gov

ARB receives additional funding to clean up state trucks, buses

Diesel emissions from freeway trucks are major contributors to
poor air quality

SACRAMENTO - The Governor's revised May budget has allocated an
additional $48 million to the Air Resources Board to help
low-income truckers comply with regulations aimed at cleaning up
diesel emissions from trucks and buses.

The funds from AB118 will combine with previously allocated
Proposition 1B funding to help truckers pay for the engine
retrofits and replacements that will be required beginning in
2010 after ARB approves in October the country's first
regulation aimed at cleaning an estimated 420,000 trucks and
buses registered in California as well as those coming in from
other states. ARB will work with the Treasurers Office to use
the 118 funds to facilitate low interest loans to help truckers
install soot filtration devices or completely replace older,
dirtier engines.

Funds will also be used to help truckers add devices such as
side skirts and wider tires that reduce aerodynamic drag and
rolling resistance of trailers, which save fuel and thus lessen
greenhouse gas emissions.

"This money will help truckers in the state, many of whom are
struggling financially, to retrofit and replace engines to help
all of us breathe easier," said ARB Chairman Mary Nichols. "We
appreciate the Governor's and Legislature's support on this
crucial public health issue."

"Sierra Club California supports the administration's proposal
to use $50 million in available air-quality funds for loans to
help low-income truckers achieve early compliance with upcoming
requirements to reduce toxic diesel emissions," said Bill
Magavern, director of Sierra Club California. "This proposal
provides a creative solution that will benefit Californians'
health and our economy."

"The American Lung Association of California is extremely
concerned about the serious health risks posed by diesel trucks
and buses and supports the Administration's proposal to allocate
existing air quality funds for grants and loans to assist in
modernizing these vehicles to reduce toxic emissions," said
Bonnie Holmes-Gen, senior policy director for the American Lung
Association of California. "Diesel trucks and buses are the
largest source of cancer causing soot in the state and we
strongly support investing state funds to achieve early
compliance with state pollution control regulations."

ARB's draft regulation addresses the largest unregulated source
of diesel emissions in the state. In the absence of the
regulation, ARB staff currently estimates 11,000 premature
deaths from diesel truck emissions between 2010 and 2020. The
total economic value of eliminating this impact is $70 to 89
billion.

The regulation is projected to cost the trucking industry
somewhere between $3.6 to $5.5 billion from 2010 to 2021, which
ARB staff estimates will add less than a penny apiece to
products hauled by these trucks that people buy, ranging from
athletic shoes to television sets.

Staff re-worked an earlier version of the draft regulation to
eliminate the need for truckers to replace trucks twice, instead
relying more heavily on retrofits for the first two years of the
regulation. The revised proposal has a lower cost while
preserving important public health benefits. The proposed
regulation now calls for truckers to retrofit pre-2007 model
year trucks with soot filters and then requires a gradual
modernization of trucks beginning in 2012, so that ultimately
all trucks are the cleanest, 2010 or newer models.

Emissions from diesel particulate matter are associated with
causing a variety of health effects including premature death
and a number of heart and lung diseases.

The Air Resources Board is a department of the California
Environmental Protection Agency. ARB's mission is to promote and
protect public health, welfare, and ecological resources through
effective reduction of air pollutants while recognizing and
considering effects on the economy. The ARB oversees all air
pollution control efforts in California to attain and maintain
health based air quality standards.

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