On Record
EquipmentWorld.com  January 2010 9 by Marcia Gruver ON RECORD Mission accomplished? O n December 3rd, the Associated General Contractors of America presented the California Air Resources Board with a compelling argument. Using the board's own fleet data  collected through the Diesel Off-road On-line Reporting System, or DOORS  AGC argued the dramatic downturn of California's construction industry had already accomplished what the board had set out to do with its diesel emission rules mandating fleet updates, retrofits and repowering. In short, the in-use equipment fleet numbers had dropped so radically that construction's NOx emissions were now far below anything that ARB originally anticipated, and with only minor exceptions, to levels lower than ARB sought to achieve through 2025, says AGC. Furthermore, according to AGC's equipment inventory analysis, ARB's original 2000 estimate overstated NOx and PM emissions from the state's off-road diesel engines in 2009 by close to 40 percent. The irony here is AGC used ARB's computer model  the same one the state used to reach the 2000 overestimate  plus DOORS stats to reach this conclusion, information ARB's staff had readily at its disposal. We were taken aback they had not done the same analysis, says Michael Kennedy, AGC's general counsel who made the Dec. 3rd presentation. We didn't use anything they didn't have, and yet it was clear they we're seeing these numbers for the first time. The board has asked AGC to document their conclusions and will do its own analysis of the association's findings. Since the board has already provided a two-year delay for most fleets impacted by the recession, said Erik White, chief of ARB's Heavy Duty Diesel In-Use Strategies Branch in an email, we should have plenty of time to perform our analysis. As such, no amendments to the rule are being considered at this time for either the April or July hearings. White's comments point out this saga is far from over. Just read the public comments posted for ARB's December 8-9 meeting and you'll realize the diesel-equals-death crowd is alive and kicking. The California construction industry must be vigilant about sharing its current business conditions. For example, Mike Cook, purchasing/fleet manager for A & A Ready Mixed Concrete, Long Beach, told the board: We have seen our sales drop from 2.6 million cubic yards of concrete in 2006 to a projected 900,000 cubic yards in 2009 ... a drop of 65 percent. Cook estimates it would cost his company $124 million to comply with the board's on- and off-road diesel rules through 2016. This is a staggering amount of money, he says. Keep telling your stories. Just because the data points south doesn't mean ARB won't continue to point north. EW The dramatic downturn of California's construction industry had already accomplished what the board had set out to do with its diesel emission rules. ew0110_On Record.indd 9 12/22/09 10:13 AM