California’s Truckers Are Fuming Over ARB’s Clean-Diesel Fuel Rule : Pollution: They cite price hikes of up to 50% and reports of engine failure. They want stand reversed.

Furious California truckers are demanding that the state Air Resources Board dump its new rule on diesel fuel.

They cite price hikes of up to 50%, supply shortages--particularly in Northern California--and reports of engine failures since the cleaner-burning fuel entered California supplies Oct. 1.

For their part, the state’s diesel refiners and the ARB blame hoarding, refinery breakdowns and other market forces--as well as poor vehicle maintenance by truckers--for most of the turmoil, which the ARB and the oil companies say is beginning to ebb.

“We want (the ARB) to rescind the diesel rule, say ‘we made a big mistake, we’re going to take this back’,” said Dave Titus, a spokesman for the California Trucking Assn., which represents 2,600 trucking companies.

The battle could come to a head today at an ARB fact-finding hearing in Sacramento, called by Gov. Pete Wilson in response to the widespread complaints.

At issue are problems that arose beginning Oct. 1, the first day that several state and federal rules took effect--all of which raised diesel prices.

That day, a new 4.3-cent per gallon federal tax took effect. Also, federal rules nationwide to lower diesel’s sulfur content kicked in. But beyond this, California required that almost half the diesel sold had to be reformulated also to lower emissions of pollutants known as aromatic hydrocarbons.

The special California diesel rule is what the truckers blame for their problems.

But state regulators and Chevron Corp., which was asked by the ARB to investigate some of the complaints, say that price hikes, supply problems and mechanical difficulties have been reported nationally, not just in California.

The ARB also says its new rule is responsible for only six cents of the price hikes that have been at least 15 cents a gallon in Southern California and 30 cents a gallon in northern parts of the state.

“We’re sympathetic to the prices that people are paying for diesel fuel,” said ARB spokesman Bill Sessa, “but we know our regulations are responsible for only a (minor) portion of that. . . . The prices people are paying are for the oil companies to explain.”

The refiners counter that seasonal price hikes, two unexpected refinery shutdowns, a last-moment rush by wholesalers to stockpile cheaper diesel and market confusion caused by the ARB itself, have caused the high prices, which are already going back down.

Indeed, wholesale diesel prices have dropped in California by 4 cents a gallon in the last several days, as refiners have pushed to increase supplies, according to Sessa.

The state’s demand for 150,000 barrels a day should soon be met by California refineries now producing 190,000 barrels a day, Sessa said.

As for the mechanical problems, “We are very confident that it is not an ARB diesel problem,” said Carl C. Thut, manager of product engineering at Chevron Corp.’s marketing and refining subsidiary, which has investigated complaints of problems in fuel injectors and fuel pumps in diesel engines in California and eight other states.

“And less than 1% of all diesel engines are experiencing the problem,” Thut said, adding: “Historically, these kinds of problems are transitory.”

Engines that have not been properly maintained or are used at higher than normal operating temperatures have been less able to adjust to the new fuel, he found.