Gary Janco of member company CC Myers Inc. telling reporters about how CARB's new off-road diesel emissions rule is hurting his business, forcing layoffs.
Emissions from California's construction and other off-road diesel equipment are less than 28 percent of what state officials have estimated, AGC announced on April 21. As a result, the California Air Resources Board has no scientific justification for sticking to a new rule requiring construction contractors to spend billions of dollars on their existing equipment.
Watch video from the event, or read AGC's release and supporting materials here.
The news was covered by the Associated Press, Sacramento Business Journal, San Diego Daily Transcript, and Fresno Bee, among others.
AGC Releases Study on California's Diesel Rule
AGC released a new study April 21 evaluating the data used by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to justify the imposition of requirements on contractors in California to reduce emissions from their off-road diesel equipment fleets. The report shows that emissions from California's construction and other off-road diesel equipment are less than 28 percent of what state officials have estimated, and therefore there is no scientific justification for the rule. The new emissions study is based primarily on data assembled by CARB last year, including how many pieces of off-road diesel equipment are in use and how much they run. The study found that there are 157,000 pieces of this equipment in the state, and not the 192,000 that the staff assumed, and 7.5 percent of this equipment is "low use." Other new data came from the state Board of Equalization, the U.S. Department of Energy, and records detailing the actual hours worked by equipment operators.
Using this new data, researchers found that state officials have vastly overestimated emissions from the state's off-road diesel fleet. Emissions parallel the consumption of fuel, and in 2009, off-road equipment burned only 164 million gallons of diesel. If the Board's original estimates were correct, that number would have reached 581 million.
AGC has been pressing CARB to immediately provide relief for thousands of construction workers from its off-road diesel engine emissions standards. In addition, AGC has been urging EPA to not grant California "federal preemption waiver" to enforce these new diesel retrofit and replacement requirements. The outcome of California's rule has national implications because other states would be free to identically adopt the California off-road rule. A separate study conducted by AGC shows that 32 states, including Arizona, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania and Texas, are poised to use the California requirements to comply with national ambient air quality standards. Because of rule's impact on contractor's nationwide, AGC joined with the AGC of California and San Diego AGC Chapter in December 2008 in a collective effort to stop the rule or significantly modify it.
For more information, contact Leah Pilconis at pilconisl@agc.org or (703) 837-5332.Gary Janco of member company CC Myers Inc. telling reporters about how CARB's new off-road diesel emissions rule is hurting his business, forcing layoffs.
Emissions from California's construction and other off-road diesel equipment are less than 28 percent of what state officials have estimated, AGC announced on April 21. As a result, the California Air Resources Board has no scientific justification for sticking to a new rule requiring construction contractors to spend billions of dollars on their existing equipment.
Watch video from the event, or read AGC's release and supporting materials here.
The news was covered by the Associated Press, Sacramento Business Journal, San Diego Daily Transcript, and Fresno Bee, among others.
AGC Releases Study on California's Diesel Rule
AGC released a new study April 21 evaluating the data used by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to justify the imposition of requirements on contractors in California to reduce emissions from their off-road diesel equipment fleets. The report shows that emissions from California's construction and other off-road diesel equipment are less than 28 percent of what state officials have estimated, and therefore there is no scientific justification for the rule. The new emissions study is based primarily on data assembled by CARB last year, including how many pieces of off-road diesel equipment are in use and how much they run. The study found that there are 157,000 pieces of this equipment in the state, and not the 192,000 that the staff assumed, and 7.5 percent of this equipment is "low use." Other new data came from the state Board of Equalization, the U.S. Department of Energy, and records detailing the actual hours worked by equipment operators.
Using this new data, researchers found that state officials have vastly overestimated emissions from the state's off-road diesel fleet. Emissions parallel the consumption of fuel, and in 2009, off-road equipment burned only 164 million gallons of diesel. If the Board's original estimates were correct, that number would have reached 581 million.
AGC has been pressing CARB to immediately provide relief for thousands of construction workers from its off-road diesel engine emissions standards. In addition, AGC has been urging EPA to not grant California "federal preemption waiver" to enforce these new diesel retrofit and replacement requirements. The outcome of California's rule has national implications because other states would be free to identically adopt the California off-road rule. A separate study conducted by AGC shows that 32 states, including Arizona, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania and Texas, are poised to use the California requirements to comply with national ambient air quality standards. Because of rule's impact on contractor's nationwide, AGC joined with the AGC of California and San Diego AGC Chapter in December 2008 in a collective effort to stop the rule or significantly modify it.
For more information, contact Leah Pilconis at pilconisl@agc.org or (703) 837-5332.