Driving Toward a Cleaner California

In The News

Hybrid trucks hit road to deliver wine

A Napa wine trucking company backed by wine mogul Jess Jackson took delivery Tuesday of two first-of-their-kind hybrid trucks expected to substantially reduce emissions and diesel fuel use.

VinLux Fine Wine Transport, a joint venture between the Jackson Family Wines and Biagi Brothers wine trucking company, said it expects its two new Peterbilt hybrids to be at least 30 percent more fuel efficient than similar vehicles.

With diesel fuel costs around $5 a gallon in California, the cost savings to VinLux are expected to be substantial.

"If you're in the trucking business, you're looking for every way you can to save," said Tom Tunt, president of VinLux, which opened in February.

Trucking industry finds fault with state's air pollution plan

Proposed state regulations that would reduce harmful pollutants are drawing criticism from Southern California's trucking and logistics industries and other business interests.

The Legislature passed AB 32, also called the Global Warming Solutions Act, in 2006, and state officials hope to enact some of its measures by November. The goal is to roll back greenhouse gas emissions in California to 1990 levels by 2020.

CARB wants to require 2007 engine standards for many trucks by 2012

California’s latest proposed regulation would cost billions in engine retrofits and replacements, but a variety of compliance options appear to show that the state’s environmental board has acknowledged at least some of the difficulties that would pose for the vast majority of small fleet operations that dominate trucking.

CARB plans webcast Thursday for proposed on-road truck emission rule

Drivers wanting to watch discussion of California’s new emission standards for existing diesel trucks can fire up their computers and watch a Webcast Thursday, July 31.

Heavy-duty trucks are the next target of the Air Resources Board

Trucking companies already battling fast-rising diesel costs are gearing up for much-stricter regulations to improve air quality in the state. But company executives say the Air Resources Board requirements come at a steep price, possibly costing them their trucking operations.

Green Rules Force Small Truckers into the Red

In a move opposed by many small trucking businesses, the California Air Resources Board has proposed new regulations in an effort to curb diesel emissions from trucks.

The agency says it is taking the action to reduce the 9,000 annual deaths attributed to poor air quality in the state. But Indian American truck owners, who make up about one-third of the industry in California, say the regulations, which require costly upgrades and replacements, will force many smaller trucking companies to shut down.

Daljeet Singh, owner-operator of Khalsa Trucking in Bakersfield, Calif., told India-West he would be forced to shut his one-man operation down if forced to replace his 1992 truck.

Lean year continues for California home builders

Halfway through 2008, California home builders remain on track for one of their least productive years in decades, the California Building Industry said.

The builder trade group believes its members will start about 72,000 homes, condos and apartments this year. The California Construction Industry Research Board is only slightly more optimistic, forecasting about 77,600 residential starts.

Daniel Weintraub: Tiny businesses becoming engine for new economy

Claudia Viek thinks Servio Gomez is at the heart of the new economy.

A native of El Salvador who once sold oranges at the end of a Los Angeles freeway offramp, Gomez worked in a San Francisco frame shop and then, with dreams of being his own boss, opened a store of his own. It flopped, but that was just the start of his story.

Gomez didn't quit. He enrolled in a business-planning course given by a local nonprofit, pulled together a few bucks and started over on Valencia Street in San Francisco's Mission District. This time his store survived and grew. Gomez has opened a second frame shop that his brother runs and two coffeehouses, one in the Mission and another in Bayview.

Dems' plans turning business climate darker

For years, state Democratic leaders have dismissed complaints about a hostile business climate. They point to the huge, long-term growth of California's economy since World War II and assert that this is such a great place to live with such a talented work force that businesses will put up with a lot to stay here.

This argument may be partly true with two of California's most successful industries – the movie-TV business in Hollywood and high-tech companies in Silicon Valley. But for the economy in general, any claim that the state is somehow immune to competition is ludicrous.

Air regulations, fuel, insurance all boost cost of business

Tom Brown, owner of the Sierra Pacific West engineering and contracting firm, says the California Air Resources Board regulations that will take effect next year may cost his business $55 million.

Brown, who took part in a recent roundtable discussion on the health of the real estate and construction industry along with other Daily Transcript Top Influentials, said as soon as April 2009, his and countless other firms will be required to make an emission accounting for every stationary piece of motorized equipment all the way down to a 25 horsepower generator.

"By 2010 we need to start retrofitting the entire fleet and we've got 145 pieces of equipment," said Brown.

Dan Walters: State risks its economy on global warming fight

Given California's infinite diversity and its maddeningly diffused governmental apparatus, it's rare for the state's politicians to undertake a comprehensive and expansive change of public policy.

The decades-long stalemate on water, the state's perpetual budget crisis and the failure of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's health care plan are merely three examples of the political system's chronic inability to act decisively and effectively.

San Francisco Chronicle

Sacramento -- California's air board, for years an obscure state agency, will take center stage this week when it unveils a blueprint for the nation's most aggressive fight against global warming that is expected to affect every resident, industry and government agency in the state in the coming decade.

The far-reaching plan, which comes 18 months after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed landmark legislation to curb greenhouse emissions by one-third by 2020, is likely to encourage consumers to use energy-efficient lightbulbs and replace gas-guzzling cars with fuel-sipping hybrids. It could require industry to reduce pollution or pay fees based on the amount of carbon they release.

DTCC Calls On Air Resources Board To Factor in Economic Environment, Record Gas Prices In Development Of Newest Trucking, Construction & Farming Regulation

Sacramento, CA – As gas prices continue to rise and following today’s announcement that California’s unemployment rate has skyrocketed up to 6.8 percent, the Driving Toward a Cleaner California Coalition called on the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to consider the state’s faltering economic environment as it develops the newest in a long line of regulations impacting construction, trucking, farming and other economic sectors.

“Construction contractors, truck owners and farmers are among the first Californians who have been impacted by the downturn in our economy, the rise in fuel prices and increases in the cost of goods that we have all experienced over the past year. As the economy continues to falter and the jobless rate rises at near-record levels, regulators in Sacramento continue to put into place new and costly regulations on these very same sectors,” said Mike Lewis, Senior Vice President of the Construction Industry Air Quality Coalition (CIAQC), representing tens of thousands of contractors who employ 850,000 carpenters, cement masons, truck drivers, operating engineers and laborers in California.

Coalition’s goal is to craft an alternative proposal that will result in the cleanest fleets in the world and keep California’s economy moving forward

Sacramento, CA – Truck owners, farmers, construction contractors and other business and community leaders today announced the formation of “Driving Toward a Cleaner California” (DTCC), a coalition committed to working with the California Air Resources Board (ARB) to craft a sensible truck and bus replacement rule that both cleans the air and keeps California’s economy moving forward.

The recently proposed on-road diesel truck and bus replacement rule – set to be voted on by the ARB this October – would impact the more than 1.5 million trucks and buses used to transport goods and people on California’s roads, highways and farms. Starting in 2010, this proposal would require every diesel truck and bus operating in California today –according to the ARB this includes “those transiting California roadways from other states and countries,”– to be replaced or retrofitted. Given the millions of goods and products delivered via truck each day in the state, these regulations could have a profound, negative impact on state’s economy and competitiveness.

They hope to use their leverage over the state budget to change policies implemented by Democrats and the governor.

SACRAMENTO — California has a huge deficit, a looming cash crisis, an angry public and pressure to raise taxes -- and in this dismal state of affairs, the state's minority Republicans see opportunity.

GOP lawmakers hope to use their leverage over the state budget, which cannot pass without some of their votes, to roll back landmark policies implemented by Democrats and the governor. Among them are curbs on greenhouse gas emissions, regulations banning the dirtiest diesel engines and rules dictating when employers must provide lunch breaks for workers.

None of those laws has any direct connection to the state budget; changing them will do nothing to close California's $15.2-billion deficit. And the Democrats who control the Legislature already have rejected Republican proposals to delay or eliminate the laws through the regular legislative process.

School districts tense over new ARB's diesel rules

For hundreds of California school districts already facing profound budget problems, the proposed diesel-soot regulations from the Air Resources Board couldn't come at a worse time: The ARB is pondering a new rule that would require schools to buy new buses-they average about $150,000 each--or retrofit older ones at $20,000 or more per vehicle.

The strapped districts also are crying foul over what they see as a betrayal by the ARB. The original diesel rule excluded school buses; the latest version of the rule includes them. The ARB, conducting hearings around the state, is expected to make a final decision in October in Fresno.

"We're in a crisis," said Stephen Rhoads of the School Transportation Coalition, which represents school districts. "The rule says if you can't put diesel traps on the buses, you've got to replace them. It says replace the engine, but you can't replace the engine on these old buses, you've got to replace the bus."

State air restrictions leave districts with few options

Cuts keep coming at the Cottonwood Union School District.

A shrinking budget has meant teachers and aides have been laid off. Now some of the district's buses may be given a pink slip because of stricter air pollution restrictions by the state.

"It's shameful that they would come to the schools at this time," said Jill Loftus, the district's director of transportation.

Along with companies that use big rigs -- such as concrete mixers, dump trucks and tractor-trailers -- to drive their business, school districts could have to replace or retrofit their diesel-burning buses over the next five years depending on how old they are.

During a pair of meetings and an hour-long discussion of school buses Monday at the Shasta County Board of Supervisors chambers, state air officials said the decision would result in less pollution and improved health. Without the restrictions, the state Air Resources Board predicts 11,000 premature deaths because of foul air.

Clean air isn’t cheap, but it’s worth the cost

Our view: It’s strange to see school officials complaining about a push to improve kids’ health.

School budgets are tight, and costly mandates from Sacramento are about as welcome as a staph outbreak in the boys locker room.

But it's strange to see school officials grousing about rules aimed at improving students' health.

Transportation managers from north state districts did just that Monday at a meeting in Redding of the California Air Resources Board, complaining that required retrofits of diesel buses will further drain school budgets. A $20,000 overhaul, one pointed out, equals half a teacher's salary.

Tighter diesel emission plan concerns truckers

Commercial trucker Tito Mena drives a rig that’ll probably be illegal to operate within a few years.

If California Air Resource Board officials in October vote to adopt stricter emission rules for most heavy-duty diesel-fueled trucks and buses, Mena will be forced to comply.

That probably means buying a new rig, which could cost him $150,000. Worse, if the truck he owns now is illegal to run in California, will anybody want to buy it?

CARB diesel emission rule too costly

As a Californian, the second-generation owner of a trucking company in the East Bay with more than 60 employees, and as a parent, I, too, want to do my part to help clean the air that all our families breathe. For the past several years, California's trucking industry has worked closely with the state Legislature and the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to find practical, realistic ways to clean up diesel trucks, and to accomplish that goal without putting an undue burden on California's businesses and consumers.

Associated Press: Housing Bust Takes Toll On Contractors, Economy

Robert Lindsey was not surprised by new data last week that showed new home sales have fallen more than 40 percent from their peak almost three years ago. He can tell from his company's bank account.

"We're literally losing money every month," said Lindsey, general manager of Signature Drywall Inc., in Sacramento, which installs drywall in new homes and apartments in the Sacramento and San Francisco areas.

In 2005, the firm raked in some $30 million in sales. Last year, sales were less than half that, and this year Lindsey hopes he can make $8 million.

"It's kind of like bleeding to death," he said.

Washington Times: Diesel Risks Mostly Hot Air?

If you were strapped for cash and lived in North Dakota, would you spend money on hurricane insurance? That would be as foolish as the recent actions of the California Air Resources Board (CARB), part of the California Environmental Protection Agency. As part of its mandate to ensure good air quality in the state — a laudable goal — CARB has begun a program to reduce diesel exhaust emissions from freight moving along California's trade corridors, including its seaports (which require huge amounts of truck traffic to transport arriving and departing containers). More »

Soaring Fuel Prices Take a Withering Toll on Truckers

By Louis Uchitelle, May 27, 2008, New York Times

As his logging business expanded in the pine and hardwood forests of eastern Georgia, Jesse Hendley got into trucking. He scraped together the cash gradually to acquire seven tractor-trailers so that he could not only sell timber to mills in the south, but also charge the mills for delivery.

Today, though, all seven rigs are parked. The soaring price of diesel fuel — over $4.50 a gallon from $2.50 a year ago — has stripped the profit from hauling. More »

Keep on truckin'? Long haulers yield to diesel prices

Their massive vehicles' low mpg weighs down the bottom line, spurring cultural and technological shifts.

If you think gas is expensive, be thankful you're not a trucker. Filling up their 18-wheel, 80,000-pound leviathans can cost more than $1,300 these days.

Because of short supply, the price of diesel has gone up more than twice as much as gasoline in the last year, reaching a U.S. all-time high this week of an average of $4.33 a gallon. With little hope of a near-term decline -- oil futures rose $2.17 to settle at a record $126.29 a barrel Friday -- the run-up is causing panic and prompting radical cultural and technological shifts in the struggling trucking industry. More »

State air board takes aim at diesel pollution

State air pollution regulators Monday proposed rules that would require the owners of some 300,000 trucks to install soot filters or replace dirty engines.

The rules would cost the trucking industry billions of dollars but save thousands of lives, the California Air Resources Board says.

"Trucks are one of the biggest, if not the biggest, sources of diesel pollution in the state," said Tony Brasil, an air board section manager who oversaw the rule development.

A trucking industry representative said she fears the proposal will force many truckers out of business. More »

Elk Grove wants a refund after hybrid-bus fires

The once-vaunted hybrid gasoline-electric buses that powered the early days of Elk Grove's transit service are languishing in a city corporation yard over city concerns about buses catching fire.

The city reportedly is demanding that manufacturers refund much of the $10 million it spent on 21 buses, most of which were on hand to launch Elk Grove's e-tran service in January 2005. More »

Capitol Weekly: A reminder to all: Truckers want clean air, too

Over the past several years the California trucking industry has worked closely with both the Legislature and the California Air Resources Board (ARB) to find practical and realistic ways to clean up diesel trucks without putting an undue burden on the businesses in this state.

For example, in 2006 the trucking industry transitioned to a new ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel and has worked with the ARB on rules to curb truck idling. In addition, we supported legislation that would have banned the registration of any truck equipped with a partially or fully mechanical engine made before 1994, in order to remove some of the dirtiest and most polluting engines from the road. More »

Pain beyond the pump: Gas near $4 a gallon raises costs for businesses

OWNERS PASS ON THEIR ADDED EXPENSES

If the cost of a fill-up at the gas station makes you gasp, you ain't seen nothing yet. High pump prices are just the beginning of the four-dollar-gas fallout.

In Silicon Valley, flowers, pizzas and taxi rides to the airport are going to cost more. So will hay for horses and limousines to the prom.

Never has so much depended on the price of gasoline as the effects of four-dollar gas trickle down. More »

Capitol Weekly: New clean-air rules for trucks set off battle between enviros, industry

As the nation focuses on greenhouse gas regulations set into motion by landmark legislation in 2006, state regulators are set to pass a less-publicized, wide-reaching rule on emissions from diesel busses and trucks that business groups say could cost billions of dollars to implement.

Environmentalists hailed the state Air Resources Board after its staff released a draft of the new regulations earlier this year—the first such rules in the nation.

But following a public hearing last Friday, the regulations were modified in the wake of howls of protest from business groups—a move that immediately kindled environmentalists' suspicions. More »

Fresno Bee: Fresno doctor on state air board

Cardiologist John Telles replaces Fresno County Supervisor Judy Case

SACRAMENTO -- Gov. Schwarzenegger on Wednesday named Fresno cardiologist John Telles to represent the Valley on the California Air Resources Board, an influential agency that sets statewide pollution and greenhouse gas regulations.

Telles, a 59-year-old Democrat, replaces Fresno County Supervisor Judy Case. Case, a Republican, was ousted earlier this year by the Democratic-controlled state Senate over accusations by environmentalists that she catered to agriculture interests. More »

Associated Press: Food Costs Rising Fastest In 17 Years

Food Costs Rising At Fast Clip, Squeezing Poor, Forcing Food Vendors To Explain Higher Prices

NEW YORK -- Steve Tarpin can bake a graham cracker crust in his sleep, but explaining why the price for his Key lime pies went from $20 to $25 required mastering a thornier topic: global economics.

He recently wrote a letter to his customers and posted it near the cash register listing the factors -- dairy prices driven higher by conglomerates buying up milk supplies, heat waves in Europe and California, demand from emerging markets and the weak dollar. More »

Los Angeles Times: Key Air Board Member Linked To Car, Oil Firms

Daniel Sperling is an arbiter of auto emissions, and his institute got millions from such companies.

When the state Air Resources Board met two weeks ago for an important vote, one member -- Daniel Sperling -- took center stage. More »

NPR: Rising Fuel Prices Drive Truckers Off the Road

Diesel fuel is selling for an average of $4 per gallon nationwide, about 20 percent more than the cost of a gallon of gasoline. On Tuesday, truck drivers across the nation parked their rigs to protest high fuel prices. More »

California emissions grants deadline is April 1

Applications must be submitted to the California Air Resources Board by April 11 to qualify for the latest round of funding to retrofit or replace trucks to reduce emissions.

Grants also are available to reduce idling and emissions from refrigerated trailers. More »

Hydrogen Car Prospects Sputter

Even California, which wants to lead the U.S. in green technology, can't seem to will technology to evolve fast enough. At least, that was the conclusion last week when California regulators confronted the stark reality that the state won't be able to strong arm manufacturers into making as many hydrogen-fueled cars by 2014 as regulators had once hoped. More »

Perkins: New diesel engine rules could cripple agriculture

Farmers, like most other Californians, are concerned about the economy, but they've got one more item to worry them: diesel regulations. New diesel rules are going to swamp California farmers with unbearable costs.

California's Air Resources Board has been developing a labyrinth of oppressive regulations for diesel engines that has snared some parts of our economy and now is about to engulf trucking and agriculture. As now proposed, these rules would cost billions of dollars and put many truckers and farmers out of business. More »

Associated Press: Calif. regulators may change direction on zero-emission vehicles

SACRAMENTO—Vehicles that run on batteries or hydrogen could take even longer to show up in America's showrooms under changes being considered by the state Air Resources Board.

California air regulators on Thursday are scheduled to vote on a proposal that would reduce the number of zero-emission vehicles automakers must produce in California and 10 other states by 2014. More »

State air board may slash zero-emission mandate

Hoping to buy an emission-free vehicle in the next few years? Finding one might soon get much tougher.

California's Air Resources Board will vote today on whether to cut, by nearly two-thirds, the number of electric-battery and hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles that major carmakers must sell here over the next decade. More »

Diesel regulations put pinch on businesses

LANCASTER - State regulators' efforts to cut diesel emissions, a major contributor of health and smog problems, is also putting the squeeze on businesses who say new regulations will cost them billions and drive many of them to either stop operating or to leave California. More

Raley's takes clean-exhaust diesels for a spin

Decals that reflect the cleaner-burning technology on Raley's grocery trucks are installed on their cabs Monday. Johnson Matthey, the company behind the technology, has about 50 demonstration vehicles on the roads, the firm says. More »

Redding Record Searchlight: 120 people get engines registered

About 120 farmers and ranchers in Tehama County had registered their
standing diesel-burning equipment by a March 1 deadline under new state air
pollution controls. More »

KSEE News: Who will pay to clean the air?

The California Air Resources Board tackles the air pollution problems of the
Central Valley often. More »

CARB asks public for input on diesel enforcement regs

Uniformed enforcement officers from the California Air Resources Board and the California Highway Patrol inspected 151,586 heavy-duty diesel vehicles from 1998 to 2006, writing citations for nearly $2.5 million in fines. More »

Forbes: Solutions

For 40 years, the California Air Resources Board has instituted precedent-setting air pollution regulations and programs that have been adopted by other agencies across the country and the world. One of the unsung heroes in helping us achieve our clean goals while promoting economic development has been California's business community. More »

Diesel cost is heavy load for truck drivers

After 32 years as an independent trucker, Bud Smith of Ventura would like to move on.

If only he could. More »

Oakland Port to take up diesel emissions

Commissioners of the Port of Oakland will consider a set of goals today that are intended to reduce diesel emissions in West Oakland by 85 percent over the next 12 years.

The plan includes a road map for raising $520 million over several years. Approximately $350 million would come from per-container fees that would be assessed on ocean carriers along with matching government funds. The remaining $170 million would come from bonds approved by California voters in November 2006. More »

New EPA rules target diesel train and ship emissions

Diesel-powered ships and trains must cut soot emissions by as much as 90% by 2030, under regulations signed Friday by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency administrator Stephen Johnson.

"Today EPA is fitting another important piece into the clean diesel puzzle by cleaning emissions from our trains and boats," Johnson said by telephone from the Port of Houston, where he made the announcement. "This will help America's economic workhorse become its environmental workhorse as well." More »

L.A. backs cargo fee as part of port clean-air effort

The Los Angeles City Council backed the first phase of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's clean-truck program Wednesday, imposing a cargo fee that will raise roughly $800 million to buy new and alternative-fuel trucks for haulers operating at the Port of Los Angeles. More »