NEW RULES TARGET TRUCKS, LAWN TOOLS
California regulators aim to crack down on air pollution
Forget speeding tickets — California truck drivers will soon have to watch out for pollution tickets.
State regulators on Thursday voted to crack down on heavy duty trucks weighing more than 14,000 pounds — those big semitrailers that make up just 3 percent of all vehicles in California but spend so much time on the road they account for more than half of all pollution from cars and trucks each year.
New rules will require these big trucks, including ones from other states passing through California — to be tested at least four times per year to make sure they meet the state’s standards for particulate matter and ozone pollution.
To enforce the rules, state officials say they will install roadside monitoring devices to catch trucks that pollute too much. Automated license plate readers
would help authorities identify offenders, who could be cited if they refuse to make repairs.
The state has two of these unattended monitoring devices in place and plans to install more. The devices resemble toll booths and capture a sample of the truck’s exhaust as it passes through
without stopping.
Environmental advocates said the rule — mandated by a 2019 law authored by state Sen. Connie Leyva — is the most significant action in a dozen years to clean up California’s air, which consistently ranks among the dirtiest in the country. State officials estimate the
rules will prevent more than 7,000 premature deaths because of respiratory illnesses by 2050, avoiding more than $75 billion in health care costs.
“(The rules) have some significance for climate, but what we’re really talking about here is the smog and the particulate matter that is making people sick and killing people,” said Bill Magavern, policy director for the Coalition for Clean Air, a statewide advocacy group.
The proposal is one of a flurry of forthcoming changes that could dramatically reshape consumer and industry behavior in the nation’s most populous state that, were it an independent country, would have the world’s fifth-largest economy.
Also on Thursday, the California Air Resources Board agreed to ban the sale of new products run by small gas-powered engines, including leaf blowers, lawn mowers and portable generators — a rule recently mandated by the state’s Democratic-dominated state Legislature. Next year, regulators are poised to tighten emission standards for barges, ferries, fishing boats and tugboats that line California’s coastal cities.
And, further down the road, regulators plan to ban the sale of all new gas-powered cars by 2035.
“These are the decisions we have to make if we’re serious about reducing our reliance on fossil fuels and leaving future generations with healthier communities,” said Assemblymember Marc Berman, a Democrat from Palo Alto who authored the law requiring the ban on new gas-powered lawn equipment.
While the new smog check rules for big trucks will have the largest impact on air quality — preventing more than 680,000 tons of smog by 2050 — banning the sale of new gas-powered lawn equipment will be the rule consumers notice the most.
Car engines have advanced over the years to pollute less. But the small engines that power most lawn equipment haven’t made as much progress. State regulators say the amount of pollution that comes from running a gas-powered leaf blower for one hour is comparable to driving a gaspowered car about 1,100 miles — or roughly the distance between Los Angeles and Denver.
“Nobody will have to give up or stop using equipment they already own. The force of this regulation falls on manufacturers,” Berman said.