State air board caves to truckers

Special interests can't run a government that protects its citizens
The Fresno Bee on Monday praised the California Air Resources Board’s decision to roll back the new, tougher regulations on diesel emissions. California contains the two worst air-pollution basins in the United States, Los Angeles and the San Joaquin Valley.
Fresno, in the middle of the San Joaquin Valley, has earned the title, "Asthma Capital of California. Nearly one in three children in Fresno, about 75,000 in 2005, had asthma, according to the Fresno Bee. 2005 was the height of the speculative housing building boom.
Trucking companies are losing business in a recession, states the editorial, therefore emission regulations were rightly rolled back by the air board, despite evidence many trucking companies have already converted to cleaner burning trucks. Inconveniently, there are also a number of CARB sponsored programs to provide financial assistance to truckers to achieve regulatory compliance, for example:

California Air Resources Board
http://www.arb.ca.gov/homepage.htm
Background
ARB is developing innovative financing programs to provide fleet owners, particularly small business owners, easier access to loan opportunities. The ARB's loan programs may offer several options to increase financing accessibility, including loans, loan guarantees, and other mechanisms to assist industries affected by ARB regulations. 
  Programs
• 2009 Air Quality Loan Program request for proposals to develop and implement an alternative air quality financing model up to $10,000,000.
• The PLACE Program for Off-Road Vehicles (formerly Pilot Off-Road Loan Incentives (POLI) ) loan guarantee program is available for off-road vehicle owners needing assistance for financing for retrofits.
• The The PLACE Program for On-Road Vehicles (formerly On-Road Heavy-Duty Vehicle Air Quality Loan Program) offers financial assistance to fleet owners subject to two regulations approved by the Board in December, 2008.
 The Goods Movement Emissions Reduction Program may potentially offer loan assistance to upgrade equipment used in freight movement along California's trade corridors.

Environmentalists who recall CARB Chairperson Mary Nichols' work as secretary of the state Resources Agency under former Gov. Gray Davis are not surprised by this board decision. Nichols routinely bent environmental rules for a special interests.
The state air board’s decision was an abdication of its authority and responsibility, a cop out, a sell out, an admission that the state’s famous Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 is nothing but hypocritical hot air. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Hunchik, spoke in Copenhagen at the UN climate change conference on the roll of "subnational" regions to initiate "grassroots regional efforts" to combat global warming. Welc  delegates spoke warmly of his message. With respect, we disagree with the Welsh.
First, it is ridiculous to consider California, the seventh largest economy in the world, containing the second largest city and the largest population in the US, "grassroots" on any subject. In the case of our Hunchik, who has made a peripheral canal to destroy the largest estuary on the Pacific Coast the cornersone of his second term, it is absurd. Considering that he has served as governor and leading cheerleader through the largest, most destructive speculative building boom and bust in state history, it is doubly absurd. What real political leadership on the environment, water and real estate bubbles should have done during the Hunchik's regime was everything possible to warn residents of the approaching dangers. Instead, the state sold itself to Wall Street.
When a newspaper calls governmental corruption “wise,” it doesn’t enlighten its public; it spreads cynicism and irrationality. The skeleton of the Valley economy showing through the housing collapse is the same as always: export-led agricultural production. This economy cannot function without large fleets of diesel trucks, one of the largest contributors to Valley air pollution. But the famous "Valley Way of Life," often touted by our politicians at election time, amounts to little more than protecting corporate profits by taking them out of labor and the environment while whining for more subsidies and federal and state handouts for the systemic social, economic and environmental destruction this form of economy has caused since its inception. In the battle between childrens' respiratory disease and corporate profits, public health and safety are once again sold out by government to cheers from the press. 

Badlands Journal editorial board
12-14-09
Fresno Bee
EDITORIAL: Air panel's decision wise, belated
Diesel rule adjustments reflect tough economy, but bad moves hurt board...12-13-09
http://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/v-print/story/1746533.html
Even before Wednesday's hearing began, it was clear that the California Air Resources Board was prepared to roll back the tough regulations on truck and bus diesel emissions it approved last December.
As its staff report stated, the down economy already had reduced at least some of the pollution that prompted the regulations in the first place. With fewer trucks on the road, air board scientists reported that diesel emissions are 20% lower this year than they had previously predicted.
Because of the recession, trucking firms are not in a position to pay for the regulations, which are projected to cost $4.5 billion over the next two decades. Both big and small firms have been forced to reduce rates, lay off drivers and idle their trucks.
On top of that, a credit crunch has made it difficult and in some cases impossible for them to obtain the financing they need to pay for soot traps and cleaner-burning truck engines the new air board regulations require.
After hearing from 80 witnesses, most of them distressed truckers, the board wisely agreed to modify its regulations but not abandon them.
Board members directed staff to come back in April with different options that could slow the phase-in of the new rules in the early years -- especially for small companies. The options might also expand exemptions and provide additional financial incentives for truckers to install filters.
The board did not walk away from its rules altogether, as some trucking industry officials had requested. Diesel fumes and dirty air take a toll on public health and the state's economy as well, and the board rightly recognizes that threat.
In 2014, California faces a federal deadline to meet clean air standards. Without reductions in emissions from diesel trucks and buses, the state will not be able to meet that deadline and could face sanctions, including denial of federal transportation funds.
Although the Air Resources Board made the right call last week, it took it months to do so -- unnecessarily. It also is troubling that CARB Chairwoman Mary Nichols did not inform the board about an agency statistician who lied about his credentials in preparing a health study on diesel emissions.
It took the San Joaquin Valley's representative, Dr. John Telles, to demand accountability on this issue before CARB leaders did the right thing. Nichols' behavior in this matter is especially troubling, and has given board critics plenty of ammunition.
A peer review panel has since examined the statistician's work and found it to be sound. Nichols should have known better than to withhold that information from her fellow board members. She has broken trust with board members, and that won't be easy to repair.
The air board's reputation and its ability to protect health rest on strong science and analyses that reflect economic reality. The board's reputation has slipped with its handling of the diesel regulations.