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Please consider the following news release from the California
Air Resources Board:

http://www.arb.ca.gov/newsrel/newsrelease.php?id=764

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 1, 2015

NEWS RELEASE 15-62



CONTACT: Melanie Turner (916) 322-2990
melanie.turner@arb.ca.gov



California supports U.S. EPA action to strengthen national ozone
standard 

Just-released ARB strategy to control pollution from cars and
trucks puts California on trajectory to meet new standard

SACRAMENTO – The California Air Resources Board supports the U.S.
EPA’s decision today to strengthen the national ambient air
quality standard for ground-level ozone pollution, bringing the
national standard more in line with California’s 10-year-old
standard.

Strengthening the standard provides health, environmental and
economic benefits for all of California. Science demonstrates
that adverse health impacts continue to occur with the previous
8-hour average ozone standard level of 75 parts per billion. The
U.S. EPA has now lowered the level of the standard to 70 ppb,
making it more health protective.

“We support using the most up-to-date science and recognize that
even as the new ozone standard gets tougher to attain California
will continue to make progress by employing cleaner technology
and fuels,” ARB Chair Mary D. Nichols said. “The new standard
will mean a reduction in premature mortality, hospitalizations,
emergency room visits for asthma, and lost work and school days.
This is especially critical in the South Coast and San Joaquin
Valley, where nearly two-thirds of our state’s residents live,
including large numbers of people who work outside and who have
asthma and other chronic heart and lung diseases.”

ARB’s control programs, together with efforts to reduce air
pollution at the local and federal levels, have achieved
tremendous success in reducing emissions and providing continued
improvement in air quality. The South Coast and San Joaquin
Valley are the nation’s only two air basins designated ‘extreme’
nonattainment.

Further reductions are needed to meet the new standard -- and
California’s air quality and climate goals. With a standard of 70
ppb, several rural counties likely will fall out of attainment,
adding to the state’s existing 16 ozone nonattainment areas. New
nonattainment areas are expected to include Amador, Tehama and
Tuolumne counties and the Sutter Buttes area.

One of several goals California must meet are the existing
ambient ozone air quality standards in 2023 and 2031, which will
require an estimated 80 percent reduction in oxides of nitrogen
(NOx) emissions below current emission levels in the South Coast
air basin, with substantial reductions needed in the San Joaquin
Valley and other nonattainment areas of the state.

New draft strategy released
In a just-released discussion draft of the State’s strategy for
its cars and trucks to meet federal air quality standards, the
ARB outlines a proposed strategy that continues to build on
previous efforts to meet critical air quality and climate goals
over the next 15 years. Released Wednesday, the strategy provides
a comprehensive foundation for the ongoing transformation of the
state’s vehicle fleet putting California on a path to likely meet
the new more health-protective federal ozone standard. 

The draft strategy (Discussion Draft Mobile Source Strategy.
Available at:
http://www.arb.ca.gov/planning/sip/2016sip/2016mobsrc.htm) is
designed to provide public health protection for the millions of
Californians who still breathe unhealthy air and to help
California do its part to slow global warming and reduce its
dependence on petroleum. In part, the proposed strategy would:
•	Establish requirements for cleaner technologies;
•	Ensure in-use performance over the lifetime of the vehicle;
•	Increase the penetration of zero-emission technologies for
cars, trucks and off-road equipment;
•	Require cleaner-burning renewable fuels; 
•	Enhance efficiencies in moving people and freight throughout
California; and
•	Transform the state’s vehicle fleet using zero- and
near-zero-emission technologies in order to help meet
California’s air quality and climate change goals. 

National low-NOx standard urged
Reducing emissions from heavy-duty trucks – significant
contributors to emissions that form ozone -- is an important
element of the mobile source strategy. ARB, therefore, urges U.S.
EPA to adopt tighter national NOx emissions standards for on-road
heavy-duty engines (fueled by either diesel or CNG). NOx, a
product of incomplete combustion, contributes to the formation of
not only ozone but also fine particle pollution (PM2.5), a
serious health threat in California.

ARB will develop new heavy-duty diesel engine emissions standards
within the next several years, while simultaneously petitioning
U.S. EPA to establish a corresponding national standard, in order
to maximize emission reductions from all vehicles operating in
California, regardless of whether they were purchased in a
different state. 

Vehicles purchased outside of California account for one-third of
the heavy-duty vehicle miles traveled in the state on any given
day. For that reason, a lower NOx standard that reduces emissions
from all trucks operating in California is critical to meeting
future air quality goals and tackling this public health
challenge.
  
For more information on the new National Ambient Air Quality
Standard for Ozone:

ARB fact sheet:
http://www.arb.ca.gov/newsrel/new_ozone_std_factsheet.pdf 

USEPA fact Sheets: 

Working to Reduce Ozone in California:
http://www3.epa.gov/ozonepollution/pdfs/20151001californiafs.pdf

Final rule and associated materials:
http://www3.epa.gov/ozonepollution/actions.html  






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