From AAIA Capital Report

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) is proposing new regulations impacting on- and off-road diesel vehicle, truck and bus emissions standards, providing relief from meeting emissions control standards. According to CARB, the relief is being provided because “the recession has negatively affected employment and revenue for most fleets affected by the regulation and has resulted in lower emissions.”

CARB also states that “updating the regulation provides an opportunity to simplify and streamline the regulation, while providing fleets more flexibility in how they reduce their emissions.” The new proposal also follows an announcement by the agency in early September that it had overestimated emissions from the heavy-duty diesel sector, mainly from off-road vehicles.

Much of the relief will be felt in the off-road sector. CARB is proposing to delay the start of regulations for two years for all fleets and would apply emissions requirements to newer vehicles rather than requiring retrofit of existing engines with new filters. Further, fleet owners that had already performed retrofits would receive double credit to satisfy future emissions control requirements.

For trucks and buses, the proposal would exempt small vehicles (those weighing less than 26,001 pounds) from meeting PM filter requirements and would delay the first engine replacements for all trucks until 2015. In addition, no engine less than 20 years old wouldn’t be replaced until Jan. 1, 2020. All trucks would need to have 2010 engines by 2023.

Additional information on the proposal and scheduled workshops can be found at
http://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/ordiesel/meetings.htm.