Destructive construction

IF YOU’RE ANYWHERE NEAR a construction site, try not to breathe. The 112,000 tractors, excavators, backhoes and other construction machines in California are the state’s second-largest source of diesel pollution, killing an estimated 1,100 people a year and sickening many thousands more.

It’s a big problem, and requires an ambitious solution. In fact, a proposal from the state Air Resources Board to force contractors to retrofit or replace old, dirty diesel engines would dwarf every other air toxics control measure state regulators have produced, as would its price tag — the board puts it at $3 billion, while construction industry officials say it’s at least three times that amount. After years of effort to draft it, a vote on the regulation in May was tabled amid heavy resistance, not only from the construction industry but from municipal governments, fire departments and even the California Department of Transportation, which fears it would boost the costs of new roads and other public infrastructure.

Meanwhile, the air board has been thrown into disarray, in part because of the construction equipment measure. Chairman Robert F. Sawyer was fired by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last week, and Executive Director Catherine Witherspoon resigned Monday; both say their efforts to crack down harder on polluters were undermined by the governor’s office.

The board’s new rules would undoubtedly increase the already soaring cost of construction. They also would decrease the number of bidders on large infrastructure projects and could hurt some smaller contractors. But the air board says most companies would pass the costs on to customers, which should minimize business failures, while the overall cost of construction in California should rise by just 0.3%. And the building industry is hardly suffering. Commercial and industrial construction in California has been skyrocketing since 2004, and state voters have approved $20 billion in infrastructure bonds that will fatten contractors’ wallets — and kill untold numbers of people absent a crackdown on dirty equipment.

Environmentalists have roasted the air board for being too slow to meet federal air-quality standards or cut greenhouse gases, but the problem appears to be higher up. Schwarzenegger’s green veneer tends to crack any time an environmental initiative encounters strong resistance from the business lobby. It’s possible to be both pro-business and pro-environment, but when those values conflict, one has to make painful choices — choices that the governor all too often tries to duck. Cleaning up is expensive, and polluters are going to have to foot the bill. If Schwarzenegger is serious about fighting pollution, he should publicly back the construction-equipment rules.