Diesel Emission Debate Puts Air Board Leader on Hot Seat

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This Thursday a showdown looms in Sacramento over one of the most sweeping environmental regulations in years: capping diesel emissions from more than 180,000 off-road commercial vehicle engines. If enacted, the regulation would cost the state’s construction industry billions of dollars over the next 12 years.


The meeting of the California Air Resources Board will also put new board chairwoman Mary Nichols on the hot seat. Nichols has just taken over an agency in administrative turmoil after the abrupt departures of former board chair Robert Sawyer and executive director Catherine Witherspoon, with the latter saying advisers to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger intervened to slow down the agency’s aggressive environmental actions.


Citing premature deaths and other health risks from diesel emissions, air board staff last year unveiled a regulation to require off-road diesel equipment operators to reduce diesel particulate emissions 85 percent from 2000 levels by 2020 and to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions 32 percent over the same time frame.


The regulation targets a wide variety of equipment, including backhoes, tractors, skiploaders, forklifts and airport ground support equipment. Operators would either have to install pollution control equipment or replace current engines with cleaner-burning ones. The agency puts the total tab over the next 12 years at between $3 billion and $3.4 billion.


But the proposed regulation has prompted fierce opposition from the construction industry, which says the actual cost to comply will be closer to $20 billion and that a shortage of new engines could force many companies and operators out of business.


“What CARB has proposed is devastating to construction firms like ours,” said Andrew Vasconi, president and founder of A.J. Vasconi Constructors in Concord. “I would probably have to retire equipment and reduce my fleet size instead of replacing equipment.”


The outcry from the construction industry and an alliance of other industries was so strong that the air board backed away from adopting the regulation as planned in May and agreed to reconsider it this week.


In an attempt to sway the board, the Construction Industry Air Quality Coalition last week unveiled a counterproposal that delays final implementation from 2020 to 2025. It also eases up on the reporting requirements; instead of giving the air board an annual inventory, equipment operators would only have to do so every three years.


Coalition president Mike Lewis said the delay would give time for cleaner-burning engines to be more widely available. Federal law will not require those engines to be made until 2015; Lewis said five years is too short a time to switch out more than 100,000 engines.


Erik White, an air board staff worker, said this alternative “falls short.” He said that board may incorporate elements of the alternative to give more flexibility to the industry.



Safety Board Makeover

While industry is apprehensive about the air regulation, the mood is more upbeat about another regulatory board.


Earlier this month, Schwarzenegger named two California Chamber of Commerce-backed candidates to the California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board, an agency that has a big say in setting sweeping workplace safety standards, from handling of hazardous materials to heat illness regulations.


New to the board is Jack Kastorff, a veteran risk control manager for several insurance companies. As a risk control manager, Kastorff has worked closely with industrial employers to reduce insurance costs and payouts. More importantly, he replaces union-backed board member Art Murray, an official with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. Industry representatives believe this could swing the board more frequently to the employer position.


Reappointed to the board is labor representative Steven Rank, who is an officer with the California Ironworkers Employers Council. Despite his union affiliations, Rank has won the support of the Chamber for his evenhanded stances. The Chamber also notes that previously Rank was director of safety and health for the National Erectors Association.



Packaging Crackdown

The California Department of Toxic Substances Control is starting to crack down on toxic materials found in packaging of consumer products.


The agency this month will start conducting random screening tests to determine whether the packaging contains excessive amounts of heavy metals such as cadmium, lead, mercury and hexavalent chromium. Among the targeted packaging are carrying cases, crates, cups, foils, wrapping films, bags and tubs.


The screenings are mandated as part of the 2004 Toxics in Packaging Prevention Act (Assembly Bill 2021, authored by former Assemblywoman Judy Chu, D-Pasadena). That law, designed to reduce the amount of heavy metals that leach into soil and groundwater from discarded packaging, bans sale of products in packaging that contains more than 100 parts per million of heavy metals.


Besides random screenings, the agency will also hold numerous public outreach forums and work with manufacturers to come up with ways to adjust their production processes to reduce toxic metals content in packaging.



Staff reporter Howard Fine can be reached at (323) 549-5225, ext. 227 or at

[email protected]

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Howard Fine
Howard Fine is a 23-year veteran of the Los Angeles Business Journal. He covers stories pertaining to healthcare, biomedicine, energy, engineering, construction, and infrastructure. He has won several awards, including Best Body of Work for a single reporter from the Alliance of Area Business Publishers and Distinguished Journalist of the Year from the Society of Professional Journalists.

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