AQMD Ordering Switch to Cleaner Truck Fleets

Striking a blow against dirty diesel exhaust, air quality officials on Friday approved what supporters hailed as a landmark measure requiring government fleets of big trucks across the region to switch to cleaner fuels, beginning in two years.

The measure, approved unanimously by the South Coast Air Quality Management District’s governing board, is part of a growing regulatory offensive against sooty diesel engines in California. Diesels contribute to air pollution and are linked to cancer but have not been cleaned up as much as either cars or factories. Air quality officials are looking for ways to get clean technologies off the drawing boards and onto the roads, beginning with big fleets of cars and trucks.

Under the regulation, 60 government agencies that operate 6,900 heavy-duty trucks in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties must begin purchasing cleaner vehicles in July 2002. Officials estimate that it will take four to 10 years for agency fleets to turn over as current diesel trucks wear out and are replaced.

Among the agencies affected are Caltrans, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, the U.S. Postal Service, the Metropolitan Water District and various local, state and federal agencies and special districts. Those trucks are used for everything from hauling heavy equipment to laying pipe and pouring road asphalt.

Also on Friday, the air quality agency approved a measure to require 2,000 taxicabs that serve Los Angeles International Airport to begin being replaced by alternative-fuel models in two years.

The diesel regulation has many exemptions to ease the burden, and air quality officials acknowledge it is a first step toward cleaning up big trucks.

Nonetheless, it is one of the more expensive rules imposed so far by local air quality officials, who estimate compliance will cost as much as $150 million over a 13-year period.

The largest cost will fall on the city of Los Angeles, which operates 2,453 heavy-duty trucks, more than any other government agency subject to the regulation. Complying with the new rule and other clean-vehicle measures approved this year will probably cost the city $200 million in the coming decade, said Dee Allen, interim general manager for the city’s environmental affairs department.

Because the rule applies only to government truck fleets, it affects only a fraction of the 57,000 heavy-duty trucks based in the Los Angeles region and none of the 1 million interstate big rigs that industry officials estimate do business in the region.

The decision marks the first time in the nation that an air quality agency has ordered diesel-powered truck fleets to convert to cleaner fuels, including gasoline, propane and natural gas.

Environmentalists praised the measure as a bold stroke for clean air, but representatives from the city of Los Angeles and some government agencies, oil companies and engine makers expressed concern about fuel availability and the costs of cleaner machines.

“Today’s action is a grand slam in the fight against dirty diesels. The board today took a courageous stand against a powerful oil lobby and for clean communities,” said Gail Ruderman-Feuer, senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental advocacy group. “This is a landmark rule.”

Los Angeles city Councilman Hal Bernson, who serves on the air quality board, said the regulation “is going to be a burden, [but] we have to move in the right direction, and we can’t lose sight of our goal.”

Under the measure, government fleet operators with 15 or more vehicles must add clean-running trucks beginning in July 2002. Only public fleets of trucks that can carry loads greater than 14,000 pounds are affected.

The program is part of a growing effort by smog-fighters to take on diesel exhaust and lower emissions from vehicles, which produce about 70% of the smog in the Southland. Once it is fully implemented, air quality officials estimate, about 82 tons of smog-forming emissions will be removed from the air annually.

The measure is the sixth in a series this year by the AQMD to control vehicle fleet emissions in the Los Angeles region. Other diesel engines targeted for cleanup include garbage trucks, public transit buses and street sweepers.

The state Department of General Services on Wednesday announced it would begin converting its entire fleet of 10,000 light-duty cars and trucks to super-clean gasoline engines or alternative fuels, beginning next year.

Diesel trucks emit large amounts of nitrogen oxide and soot, both of which contribute to ozone and haze that fouls the region’s sky. State air quality officials have declared diesel exhaust a cancer-causing contaminant and a 1999 AQMD study showed diesel exhaust accounts for 70% of the cancer risk from air pollution in the Los Angeles basin. Results of a USC study released Thursday show that high levels of air pollution, particularly particles and nitrogen dioxide, reduce children’s lung function by as much as 10%.

“We want motor vehicles to do their fair share of the cleanup. This is intended to stimulate new technologies for diesel as well as alternative-fueled vehicles,” said Barry Wallerstein, the AQMD’s executive officer.

Los Angeles city officials initially opposed the measure but changed their position after winning a commitment from the air quality agency to find funds to subsidize the conversion. The subsidies would come from penalties paid by polluters, surcharges on motor vehicle registration fees and funds created to promote new anti-smog technologies.

The air quality board exempted police, fire, rescue and military vehicles as well as interstate big-rig trucks. In limited cases, agencies can buy gasoline or low-polluting diesel engines if an agency can demonstrate alternatives are not available or are not cost-effective. And until 2004, fleets are exempt if refueling stations are more than five miles away from where vehicles are stored.