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Air board lets up on diesel bus standards, kills truck idling

Oakland Tribune, Oct 21, 2005 by Douglas Fischer, STAFF WRITER

The California Air Resources Board gave diesel bus engine manufacturers a break Thursday, essentially postponing until 2010 tough new emission standards on diesel engines set to take effect in 2007.

The move is good news for Bay Area transit operators -- the only urban operators in California driving diesel -- as it allows agencies to buy new diesel buses. And, oddly, it pleased the environmental lobby, which feared the board would, in the interest of fairness, roll back similar standards for natural gas buses carrying the bulk of riders in Southern California.

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Separately on Thursday, the board closed a loophole allowing drivers of big rigs with sleeper cabs to idle their trucks indefinitely. As of 2008 they will be subject to the same five- minute rule as other trucks, producing a vast savings in both emissions and fuel use.

Of the diesel fuel used on the road today, the agency figures 3 percent -- 160 million gallons annually -- blows out the exhaust pipes of idling sleeper cabs.

Driving both issues is nitrogen oxide emissions. A primary ingredient of smog, NOx contributes to asthma and other respiratory ailments in urban areas.

The board has aggressively tried to trim emissions in any way possible, but bus engine manufacturers say the board's 2007 deadline to meet a 0.2-gram NOx emissions standard is technologically unfeasible.

Instead, they say they can meet a more lax, 1.2-gram federal standard and have promised to hit 0.2 grams by 2010, when federal rules force such a benchmark nationwide.

With no bus manufacturer selling an engine capable of holding NOx emissions to a lower threshold until 2010, Bay Area bus agencies would have been unable to buy a new bus from 2007 through 2009 had the board not eased its rule.

Thursday's vote was complex, and portions will be revisited when the board meets next week in Southern California. It keeps the 2007 deadline in place for both diesel and natural gas engines but allows transit agencies to buy a new diesel engine that does not meet the standard so long as they retrofit an older diesel bus.

c2005 ANG Newspapers. Cannot be used or repurposed without prior written permission.
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Air board lets up on diesel bus standards, kills truck idling

Oakland Tribune, Oct 21, 2005 by Douglas Fischer, STAFF WRITER

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