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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
The 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 bene ts in the state’s smog-a ected areas by slashing nitrogen oxides (NOx) by 75% over the next four years, and following CARB’s Aug. 27 proposal, opponents are le 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: “ e 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 certi cation standard, a new in-use testing protocol with very signi cant modi cations 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 con rmed by independent expert analyses, fall well short of any reasonable cost-bene t 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 bene ts.” e Omnibus Regulations are illegal, EMA stated, because “they violate the requirements for adopting valid
administrative regulations (including under the California Administrative Procedures Act), but also because they directly violate the controlling lead-time provisions of the federal Clean Air Act.” e Clean Air Act requires new heavy-duty on-highway standards aimed at emissions to provide four years of lead time prior to enforcement. CARB’s Omnibus Regulations currently provide only two years of lead time for 2024 model-year requirements, which according to EMA would disqualify the agency from receiving a waiver of federal preemption.
Circling the wagons
EMA’s concerns are shared by the American Trucking Associations (ATA) and the newly formed Truck Dealers Alliance of California (TDAC). Both groups, like EMA, would like to see CARB take a more collaborative approach with industry stakeholders, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, to produce a single nationwide set of standards that do not require unique California-only engines, which places additional costs on manufacturers, dealers and carriers alike.
“Our overall request to the board is to refocus its e orts on a collaborative national approach targeting 2027,” said Mike Tunnell, ATA’s director of environmental a airs and research. “I think many of the industry stakeholders are aligned with that.”
A single nationwide approach will save time and money, Tunnell said. “It just puts everybody on a level playing eld,” he said. “You don’t want to carve it up and say, ‘Well, this state has this standard.’ Plus, the manufacturers will have only one product to make. As of now, if this were to go through, they’ll have to have two di erent products, and that is just adding to the expense. ey’ll have two di erent certi cations. You can go down the line. It’s just duplicative and adds to the cost of equipment.”
Like EMA and TDAC, ATA also believes the Omnibus Regulations will compel businesses to seek relief outside California.
“We feel that this state-only approach isn’t going to do what CARB wants it to do,” Tunnell said. “People’s abilities to buy trucks don’t rest just in California. You will still have trucks coming into California that don’t meet the standards, so really it will just hurt businesses that are in the state, either truck dealerships or eets that can only buy in-state while the rest of the world continues on. We think the only way to address this is through a national program that is working through the U.S. EPA and giving the manufacturers the lead time they need to deploy this technology by the 2027 date.”
CARB’s bigger push for tougher emissions standards led to the recent formation of TDAC. Interim President Matt Schrap, president of Los Angeles-based California Fleet Solutions, said
In a letter posted Aug. 21 on CARB’s board meeting comments log, Achates Power said it was “highly confi dent” that its 10.6-liter opposedpiston diesel engine will be certifi ed at CARB’s low NOX standard of 0.02 g/bhp-hr (nearzero emissions) and “will emit less CO2 than the EPA requires.” However, the engine won’t be in mass production until at least 2027, or three years after CARB’s aggressive Omnibus Regulations are proposed to take eff ect in 2024.
TDAC has the support of the American Truck Dealers, a division of the National Automobile Dealers Association.
Schrap said that in addition to creating greater demand for used trucks, service requirements under the proposed rule set also are expected to rise.
“ e only thing that they (CARB) admitted to dealers was that we would likely see increased service work because customers would be holding onto equipment longer,” Schrap said. “ at defeats the purpose of what they’re trying to accomplish here and doesn’t do anything to lend business certainty to dealerships in California who are again caught in the middle of whether or not CARB is actually going to be able to do this legally. At the same time, it sends a message that there really is very little business consideration for companies operating in California when it comes to the latest suite of regulatory issues that are heading at us. CARB is really taking a new aggressive approach.”
Schrap said TDAC planned to appeal to California Gov. Gavin Newsom in a letter.
“It basically points to the need for a single nationwide engine standard,” he said. “It’s a very simple ask. ere isn’t anything beyond or even a delay of the adoption of the rule, which is inevitable.”
Schrap said that at this point, a legal response from stakeholders seems likely.
“ at’s the only path CARB has made available to anybody anymore,” he said. “If you’re not with them, you’re against them. And how you get that message through is basically, unfortunately these days, through litigation. is is a clear, clear exceedance of their authority as it exists today. ey need the waiver, and they’re acting like they already have it.”
Where’s the proof?
NOx, according to CARB, is a “precursor to smog, which can cause or exacerbate numerous respiratory and other health ailments and is also associated with premature death.” CARB believes that by lowering NOx, it will “protect communities
most impacted by air pollution.” e only problem, EMA claimed in its comments, is that CARB has yet “to demonstrate that its proposed Low-NOx Regulations will be e ective at reducing ozone levels in the South Coast Air Basin (SoCAB),” a roughly 6,600-square-mile area that includes Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.
To obtain data to support its case, EMA hired Denmarkbased engineering consulting group Ramboll Group to study levels of ozone, or smog, in central Los Angeles during the coronavirus, which because of shelter-in-place directives saw a sharp drop in vehicular tra c and, according to Ramboll, a subsequent 20% drop in NOx levels.
But a drop in NOx doesn’t always equate to a reduction in smog. According to EPA, reductions of NOx emissions actually can increase smog in localized areas “depending on the local quantities of NOx, VOC (volatile organic compounds) and ozone catalysts such as the OH (hydroxyl) and HO2 (hydroperoxyl) radicals.”
So would less NOx in downtown Los Angeles equate to less smog? Not according to Ramboll’s ndings.
“Ramboll’s supplemental analysis con rms that ozone levels in the SoCAB are, at best, currently unresponsive even to signi cant 20% reductions in ambient NOx levels, reductions
While California posts daily air quality index forecasts like this one for Aug. 24 in the South Coast Air Quality Management District, the Truck and Engine Manufacturers Association said the state has not demonstrated whether lowering NOx will decrease smog in areas where air pollution has been a concern.
that are well beyond those that could be achieved through implementation of the proposed Low-NOx Regulations,” EMA wrote in its comments submitted to CARB.
“Ramboll’s analysis and ndings con rm that the proposed Low-NOx Regulations likely will not be e ective in reducing ozone levels in the SoCAB,” EMA continued. “Just as important, CARB has done nothing to establish any di erent conclusion. e complete lack of evidence of the actual e cacy of CARB’s proposed Low-NOx Regulations is another factor establishing their invalidity.”
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