EQUIPMENT: CARB REGULATIONS
‘COST-PROHIBITIVE,
INFEASIBLE,
UNENFORCEABLE
AND ILLEGAL’
Trucking industry experts say CARB’s proposed Omnibus Regulations will drive up sales of used trucks like these shown in February at a Ritchie Bros. auction in Orlando, Florida.
Critics slam CARB’s proposed low NOx regs BY TOM QUIMBY
T
he California Air Resources Board (CARB) in late August proposed its Low NOx Heavy-Duty Omnibus Regulations, despite outcries from industry critics that claim the set of proposed rules are too costly and illegal and that there’s no evidence that they actually will improve air quality. CARB reported that its latest regulations will provide health benefits in the state’s smog-affected areas by slashing nitrogen oxides (NOx) by 75% over the next four years, and following CARB’s Aug. 27 proposal, opponents are left with little choice but to challenge the policies in court following fruitless attempts at negotiation. Starting in 2024, CARB’s Omnibus Regulations will require heavy-duty diesel and gasoline engines sold in California to emit no more than 0.05 grams of NOx per brake horsepower hour (g/bhp-hr), a 75% drop from the current limit of 0.2 grams. However, NOx reduction is only part of the picture. In comments submitted to CARB, the Truck and Engine Manufacturers Association (EMA) reported that the board’s legislative ambitions have “expanded considerably” and go “well beyond” its original 2027 goal of reducing NOx by 90%. As part of its 342-page response to CARB, EMA wrote: 52
commercial carrier journal
| october 2020
“The proposed ‘Omnibus Regulations’ now also include a 50% reduction in the HDOH (heavy-duty on-highway) PM (particulate matter) standard, a new ‘Low-Load’ test-cycle and certification standard, a new in-use testing protocol with very significant modifications to the manufacturer-run in-use testing program, a new idleNOx standard and associated in-use test procedure, greatly extended ‘full useful life’ and emissions warranty periods, a far more costly set of deterioration-factor testing requirements (with multiyear impacts on product development timelines), a ‘California-only’ credit ‘averaging banking and trading’ (AB&T) program, and stricter recall and extended warranty liabilities associated with proposed ‘enhancements’ to CARB’s Emissions Warranty Information Reporting (EWIR) program.” EMA went on to say that CARB’s latest proposed trucking regulations are “cost-prohibitive, infeasible, unenforceable and illegal and, as confirmed by independent expert analyses, fall well short of any reasonable cost-benefit metrics. CARB has grossly underestimated the costs associated with nearly all aspects of the proposed far-reaching Omnibus Regulations and has materially overestimated their potential benefits.” The Omnibus Regulations are illegal, EMA stated, because “they violate the requirements for adopting valid
