Equipment World : July 2010
California Crack Down, Part Four: Construction Raises Its Hand
CALIFORNIA CRACK DOWN, PART IV
by Marcia Gruver Doyle and Mike Anderson
Construction raises its hand
Voluntary diesel emission reduction programs gain steam
I
n countering the California Air Resources Board’s off-highway diesel emission rule, contractors point to programs already in place that emphasize voluntary approaches to getting emissions reductions for dirty diesel machines – including a long-standing program within California itself. Long before the rest of the country even caught wind of California’s drive to lower emissions from diesel engines, the state was offering financial incentives for local fleet owners to retrofit or replace equipment. Initiated in 1998, the Carl Moyer Memorial Air Quality Standards Attainment Program – usually shortened to the Carl Moyer Program – has provided grant funding for the voluntary purchase of cleaner-thanrequired engines, equipment and emissions-reducing technologies. “Over its first seven years, the program provided $170 million to clean up approximately 7,500 engines throughout California,” CARB says in a 2008 executive summary on the program. As a result, CARB says, the state achieved emissions reductions of about 24 tons per day of oxides of nitrogen and one ton per day of toxic diesel particulate matter. That same year, an off-road equipment replacement category was added
Before and after: A DERA grant picked up $7,349 of the $15,300 it took to repower this 1996 Cat 928F loader owned by Cortis Excavating in Marine City, Michigan.