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California’s Air Resources Board has proposed a number of diesel engine emission requirements that will be costly and burdensome for the trucking industry. One such regulation involves Transport Refrigeration Units (TRUS) that are over seven years old and will result in all such TRUS that enter California to undergo retrofits to reduce particulate matter emissions below federal standards. The first phase of the tiered implementation schedule under the TRU regulation is to occur prior to December 31, 2008.
ATA took the lead at a January 2006 hearing before EPA, asking it to withhold approval of the TRU regulation because of its potentially enormous cost on out-of-state based refrigerated haulers, a cost that will be wholly disproportionate to any benefit associated with emission reductions from engines that may only rarely be in the State. ATA also filed detailed comments opposing the TRU regulation with the agency in 2006. Challenging the TRU regulation will alert the EPA that this particular regulation and other California proposals affecting out-of-state trucking equipment should not be rubber-stamped and that every effort to mitigate the effect on non-California equipment must be made. EPA must next decide on whether to approve or deny California’s request to implement the regulation statewide. It remains uncertain as to when EPA will render a decision on the pending waiver request.
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