Peterson People familiar with California’s ever-growing regulations governing engine emissions in the industries we serve may be surprised to find that the California Air Resources Board (CARB), the state agency charged with researching and adopting air quality standards, recently announced that much of the data upon which they had based numerous laws governing heavy equipment use was incorrect.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, which published a lengthy report on CARB’s error, “California grossly miscalculated pollution levels in a scientific analysis used to toughen the state's clean-air standards, and scientists have spent the past several months revising data and planning a significant weakening of the landmark regulation,” which will become law following the Board’s assembly in December.

Various factors were responsible for the miscalculation, including a dramatic decrease in diesel fuel consumption by heavy equipment due to the economy and flawed methods on the part of CARB scientists. These errors came to light when Robert Harley, a UC Berkeley professor of environmental engineering and his colleague performed an independent investigation into CARB’s claims of pollutant output. They found that the organization had greatly overestimated off-road emissions output in California, and their published report prompted further study by CARB.

Following the publication of Dr. Harley’s report, CARB began to conduct additional research using an improved method to calculate diesel emissions; the new method focused on the amount of fuel sold rather than equipment use. “Their new findings suggest that off-road vehicles are burning 228 million gallons of diesel fuel per year. The previous estimate was one billion gallons, which means the first estimate was 340 percent higher than the new calculation,” reported the Chronicle.

On October seventh, CARB (along with the Associated General Contractors of America [AGC]) released statements to the press announcing that the proposed changes to the legislation “will offer affected businesses additional time and more flexible options for compliance” and noted that they worked closely with AGC to ensure that both organizations worked from identical data to reach an appropriate solution for California’s air-quality issue.

So what does this mean to equipment operators in California? According to CARB, the amendments, which will be presented for approval at their December hearing, will:

• Delay start of requirements until January 1, 2014
• Increase the number of “low-use” equipment exempted (“Low use” will be redefined from 100 to 200 hours per year)
• Provide simpler compliance options for the smallest fleets
• Lower annual requirements to clean up engines
• Give contractors credit for the efforts they have already made to reduce emissions
• Reward contractors for voluntarily reducing emissions before 2014

AGC was pleased with CARB’s proposed changes, and suggested in a press release that they would have positive effects for people working in the industries we serve: costly compliance measures can be delayed until the economy improves, which should help pay salaries that might otherwise have gone toward changes to otherwise-acceptable equipment. Mike Kennedy, general counsel for the AGC, was quoted in the same press release as saying: “It was not easy, but we found a way to protect workers and air quality at the same time.”

Click Here to read the SF Chronicle’s original article, “Overestimate fueled state’s landmark diesel law.”