California Air Resources Board passes controversial off-road diesel emissions rules

[James]

CARB the off-road diesel regulation passed unanimously by its 11-member board. The decision in Sacramento, CA on July 26 will mark perhaps the most significant change ever to affect the heavy construction industry in California. It is now a national issue, as well, as other states may line up to follow California's direction.

What will the passage of these rules mean for fleet owners of graders, dozers, backhoes, etc.? Here is a quote reported by the Associated Press from CARB's Sacramento meeting:

"Our industry has done nothing wrong," said Gordon Downs, owner of Downs Equipment Rental in Bakersfield, who estimated the rule would cost his company $2.1 million in the first year alone. "Why are we being punished by the very state we helped to build?"

Downs owns some 300 pieces of heavy equipment. Whether he will be one of the first businesses to close its doors, or significantly reduce its inventory and staff remains to be seen. However, it is known in the industry that manufacturers of heavy equipment can anticipate a loss of 20 percent to 40 percent of their customers in California, according to Bill Davis, executive vice president of Southern California Contractors' Association (SCCA).

Davis added, "SCCA is extremely disappointed in the Air Resources Board's failure to acknowledge the reality that the equipment needed to meet their regulations won't be available for another eight years.

"The next step is for the construction industry to let the dust settle; the final regs won't be completed for about a month because the board did make some minor changes at the meeting; and to re-draft the regulations so they can be used by other states.

"However, as the regs stand now, the penalties for not complying with the new rules are severe: $10,000 per day and if CARB determines non-compliance is a willful, unlawful failure, the fines go up to $40,000 per day," he said.

Davis sees the decision as a historic dividing line where, "... the heavy construction industry that had a very strong core of mid-sized companies is now going to have only very large and very small ones."

[mmccaig]

Wow.

Last year, I asked a Cat ACERT guy whether the Tier 3 and Tier 4 diesel regulations for off-road engines would affect only new equipment, or if they would mean retrofits of some sort for equipment already in the field. He said it only affected new equipment, because it would be unreasonable to expect equipment owners to buy new or retrofit old equipment.

What a lot of difference a year makes.

[Wolf]

It just seems so "anti-business" and "anti-development" in a true California left coast fashion. Wow.

[demobud]

There should at least be a manageable window of time for owners of older equipment to be able to budget retrofittting. I can see this puyting a lot of small new business owners in a bad way.

[James]

I agree with you demo, I think this is going to put a lot of business under and under fast.