California Abandons Original Off-Road Diesel Emissions Estimates
August 31, 2010
The California Air Resources Board abandoned its original estimates of
off-road diesel emissions today, conceding that its “off-road rule” is not
needed to meet ambitious goals for the off-road equipment in the construction
and certain other industries. According to new estimates that the agency staff
developed over the summer, off road fleets of diesel equipment will exceed the
state’s emission goals for many years to come.
During the earlier rulemaking process, the board staff used the now abandoned
estimates to justify an “off-road rule” that would needlessly force contractors
across the state to retire, retrofit, repower or replace billions of dollars
worth of construction equipment, and all at a time when California’s
construction industry is still losing jobs. When informed of the state’s new
forecasts, association officials called on the Board’s members to repeal the
rule “quickly and completely.”
“The fact that this agency has been willing to find and fix the significant
flaws in its original estimates is a victory for sound science over rash
regulation,” said Mike Kennedy, general counsel for the Associated General
Contractors of America. “As the agency’s own data now makes clear, it is time
for the board to repeal its costly and unneeded rule.”
Kennedy said the state’s
new forecasts are for emissions of nitrogen oxide from the regulated fleets
to fall well below the levels that the state has targeted in each and every year
through 2025. The state now predicts that emissions of particulate matter will
fall below the targeted levels through 2015 and will remain close to those
targets through 2025.
The state agency revised its diesel emissions estimates after an analysis of
the state’s original “emissions inventory” found significant flaws in the
state’s data. That analysis,
conducted by Sierra Research on behalf of the Associated General Contractors of
America, found that the state has systematically over-estimated diesel emissions
from off-road equipment by a factor of 3.5. The new data that the state released
today essentially confirms that finding, association officials noted.
“The good news is that thousands of construction workers won’t have to lose
their jobs on account of bad science and erroneous estimates,” said Kennedy.
“The construction industry is now eager to work with the board to find ways to
meet ambitious environmental goals and still protect the state’s remaining
construction jobs.”
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