California passes toughest diesel emissions standards in U.S.
Articles — By forcechange on December 12, 2008 7:12 pm
The California Air Resources Board did pass the diesel emissions standards on Friday. The standards will be the toughest in the nation and will require extensive retrofitting of heavy diesel trucks and buses. Some older models will have to be phased out entirely.
Around a million trucks and buses will be retrofitted or replaced. Retrofits will require smog filters or cleaner engine technology beginning in 2011. By 2014, all trucks and buses must have soot filters. By 2023, no truck or bus will be allowed to be more than 13 years old unless it has special equipment to cut nitrogen oxide emissions.
This approval comes in the same week that California also passed the most stringent greenhouse gas emissions laws in the nation. Reducing diesel soot emissions will improve human health, air quality, and also fight climate change.
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I understand the need for cleaner air however the State of California can not survive if this passes…95% of the truck owners can barely pay the high cost of fuel and maintanance to keep trucking.. How can the state expect to handle all the people that will have to park the rigs due to the fact that the upgrades calif expects them to do can not be financially reached. Will Calif be better off with the trucks parked and more people out of jobs. This will only bring up the unemployment rate, raise food prices,lumber,and everything else that is shipped by truck and put us more in debt. Not to mention all the people that will loose everything they own because they can not afford to buy new rigs or spend thousands of dollars to replace whatever calif tells them they have to pay to meet calif regulations. Im not clear how this will make things better? Will Calif offer these people money to purchase new rigs and not have to pay the notes back? Im sure that the people who thought this up did not consider the consequences. I really think that this law needs to be reconsidered and really rechecked! If Californias intention is to put everyone further in debt and raise costs this is the way to do it! If calif was going to put something like this into play it should be required for all new trucks sold afer the date the law goes into effect… The manufactures should be responsible to equip the new trucks with the emissions that will be required in calif just like the autos. Do the people who passed this law drive to work everyday with blinders on or do they notice all the trucks on the roads that are delivering all the items that they use everyday….Including the car they are sitting in..The saying holds true if you bought a truck brought it! How can this emission law help?
Don’t worry we will let the mex trucks come in and do all the work with no smog standard!
i also think the law should encompass the new trucks being sold i am a one truck operation and had to settle for an older model due to an accident it was either that or just give up entirely and thjat includes the mortgage now it seems like its going to be inevitable i was reading somewhere that you can file for a one year extension but havent had time to research further maybe california truckers should appeal to the president as in the long run the u.s govt will be giving $ to calif so they will be able to pay the unimployment to all who are put out of work as well as losing there homes im open to any sane and rational ideas including rolling to the capital
I am outraged by this new law. People of California you had better wake up and take your state back. Call for the abolisshen of CARB and the Bureau of Automotive Repair. Their funding comes from the fines imposed on business, and private citizens. The independent Gas Stations in California went out of business because of continuing regulations passed by CARB, and other agentcies. Now you can’t even burn wood products in your fire place in you home on high air quality days. California law makers are out of control, with a 40 Billion dollar debt. Now they want to raise your taxes, with higher income tax, sales tax increase, fuel tax, DMV license, on all vehicles, tobacco taxes, and probibly some other taxes. This is at a time when almost 10% of Californians are unemployed. It is a proven fact that raising taxes increases unemployment. You want a better economy lower taxes. Arnold Schwarzenegger is not a governor of the people. He is a (RINO)Republican In Name Only. Now he has got his hand out for a Government Federal Bail out. Trukers do not let California put you out of business. Demand your rights, and KEEP ON TRUCKING.
the government should be required to retro-fit all the trucks out there…
I encourage anyone who thinks these laws are too far reaching to do some world travel… go to Mexico City, or any industrial city in China, India or Eastern Europe. If that’s the standard of living you still want your kids and grandkids to have, then let’s talk. Otherwise mountains of research and common sense both agree that sustainable environmental and sustainable economic policy go hand-in-hand. Sooner or later we all need to grow up, and California lawmakers have been doing the heavy lifting for years, even when Washington has failed.
Are you saying California legislature is doing the heavy lifting for those impacted by the extra costs to retrofit their rigs?? I don’t think so. If they’re willing to take a cut in salary, same as truckers have had to with the increase in fuel costs, then MAYBE they’ll understand why most of the posts are against regulation unless it’s by the Feds for new equipment. If the State and Feds find money to do the retrofits, fine with me…but don’t expect the poor trucker to do it without any help.
its people like u that are going to make a carbon tax come to pass!! i suppose u think we all deserve this to right!! are u even aware that the sun goes through natural cycles of heating and cooling. causing most of the damage that the global elite blame us for.
I’m a California Owner Op and I don’t see how these standards are really that tough. The rest of the nation needs to immediately adopt them now! The deadlines reach as far away as 2023! Every driver who stayed overnight in Fontana should know that the manufacturers must rise to the reality of global warming and make affordable, clean, and safe vehicles. Just as one commented here, there’s no reason why the quality of air in California needs to be like that of Mexico City, Delhi, or Shanghai to keep truckers in business. Once California’s quality of air and water drops to the level of rust bucket USA states like Ohio and Michigan, we are doomed quite frankly.
Stop the Global warming crap! Too much information & documented evidence about Al Gore, Enron and Goldman Sachs devising carbon scheme to make billions of carbon trading. Scientists were paid well to adjust numbers. More evidence comes out daily on science sites (NASA falsified info; IPCC, CRU, it goes on and on. Activist groups, politics have no place in science. Media is ignoring the biggest science scandal in decades. But they also ignored millions killed in Russia under Marx.
They’re propagandists and you’ve been duped.
your my kinda girl! ever listen to alex jones? its nice to know not everyone is a dumbed down coolaid drinker!!
Sure there is unhealthy smoke from trucks. Trucks are desighned to run not to sit in traffic. Why not keep shippers/recivers open 24/7 so trucks don’t have to wait. Then you will not see interstate trucks in the conmute, they will in and out at nite. Trucking in general needs to be more efficent to keep the cost down. The law makers need not to complain just understand the big picture.
I think that shipper/receivers should be required to have sufficient parking and electrical plug-ins to allow driver’s to stay the weekend, if necessary, free of charge and without idling their motors or crowding city streets.
It’s amazing there is no public outcry regarding the many mandates passed on to working people, who end up footing the bill while those who pass these laws make their 6 figure salaries and find ways to avoid paying taxes.
The stringent air quality requirements in my view should be phased in on new equipment, allowing the older equipment to continue working as is (unless the government foots the bill for the retrofit). Here we have a govt. who says it’s OK to take nearly 3 billion dollars from the populace (actually more figuring in the long term interest to be paid on this) for $4.5K discounts on new vehicles (60% foreign made at that!).
Yet, diesel engine owners are expected to dig deep into their pockets to make changes with no help!
Over 400,000 vehicles were traded in on this 3 billion dollar boondoggle, wiht many perfectly good and now destined to be crushed. Union of Concerned Scientists say this is a good thing because over the long term it will lower carbon dioxide, but will it? Figure all the carbon dioxide produced making 400,000 new vehicles and disposing of another 400,000. You would have thought one out of a hundred politicians might have suggested allowing larger pick-ups, SUV’s, and other “polluters” to be exempt from the crusher, IF they were to be used as commercial vehicles that by their nature are heavier, to carry loads. But no, we the people must pay for this…or better said, our grand kids. I’m completely disgusted, as I continue to keep my 20+ year old diesel car and company trucks operating…and will continue to do so unless Big Brother exercises their Eminent Domain policy of legalized highway robbery, taking our hard earned money away bit by bit.
I keep seeing owner ops complaining that THEY have to pay for all these CARB compliance issues. The fact is the customers–the shippers and consignees will be forced to pay for all this. Don’t accept low bids! No Mexican or other state trucks out of CARB compliance will be allowed to operate in the state, so that means those owner ops ready and able to upgrade their equipment will be assured continued business. I know a lot of immigrant and soon to be retired truckers who will not be able to upgrade their equipment. This change will improve the quality of life in this state–which is California’s most important asset. If this state becomes unliveable than the engineers, bankers, university professors, and others who make big bucks will move away. We as truckers don’t want them to move away because they guarantee our livelihood at a level better than the Mexican and Texan drivers.
Your saing that shippers will pay for it? I do not think so. Brokers as always will ask shippers for more money (suposetly truckers are demending) but truckers will get same crap.
If I have to buy a new dump truck and backhoe, there is no way I can pass that cost on to my customers…. I will simply go out of business, because I can’t possibly generate enough money to buy new equipment.
Well said Sam, Diesel trucks make the US go round.
It is wrong to make people pay out of pocket to modify a vehicle that was approved by the standard of the day it was sold, just like here in CA we have vehicles 1974 and down emissions exempt, because that is the way it was sold. My 2002 & 2003 diesel trucks didn’t have a soot filter and I’ll be damned if I’m going to pay to put one in them if it isn’t issued to me.
This is just one more needle on the haystack towards moving out of California. Hopefully one day we can all get out and give it back to Mexico so all of the illegal immigrants can figure out their own welfare and healthcare issues without dipping into my pocket to do it.
It’s no problem guy’s we just stay out of california let’s see how they do when they can not get there most basic needs
At the risk of sounding retarded, I have a question about the diesel emissions laws… How does it effect diesel pick-up trucks? I am in the market to buy an old beater truck (like an F-350). If I buy a mid-90′s diesel pick-up truck, do I need to worry about these new laws? Thanks in advance for your help.
Pick ups are exempt so long as they’re not above a certain weight. I checked some time back and my old dodge 350 with heavy steel flat bed wasn’t over the limit.
looks like all that california bailout money that good ole schwarzenegger got is comin straight out of our asses one way or another!!!
We are a human existance that can evolve, chimicals that effected us in the years past are no longer harmfull , we grow ammunites , we should be looking closer at the statements by the medical field..
Let’s have transfer sites at the border towns on major corridors. You out of state guys just drop your loads there and us with qualifying equipment will be happy to haul it into our state at inflated rates. Trying to see the glass half-full.
But seriousely, Clean air is great, but changes shoudldn’t be forced on owners of existing vehicles. Let’s start building them that way now, not ten years ago.
Everything we do is always so extreme.
We either do nothing until it’s a problem or we use a sledgehammer to drive a nail.
All we needed to do was require all new vehicles to be modified and all old diesels be checked for reckless soot and require Mexico and out of state trucks to have a “Tested” permit if they want to drive in California. We are doomed and deserve it, best wishes to the new planet.
I just had my 2003 f250 diesel smogged. The man doing to smog certificate told me they do absolutely nothing but give you a smog certificate for $58.00. Just another California liberal policy to screw the tax payer.
Have no fear, a device is available now from Hydravolt that reduces particulates by 31% AND increases fuel economy 25%. There are no moving parts, can be installed in 2 hours. Fleets can use a unit for 20 days and see for yourself. The device produces Hydroden as needed, plumbed to the intake plenum and is maintance free.
For forty five hundred dollars it will pay for itself in fuel savings, and no more replacing EGR valves again and it keeps the intake system clean. Patentend and ready to go. You see our country can find answers, have faith in technology.
Those who don’t believe in climate change need to look out the window of their cab at all the other trucks and think more carefully about how human activity can change the world. Then, watch the weather reports and frequency of catastrophic weather patters being experienced over the past few years. Also, it helps to listen to the American Academy of Sciences, which represents the nation’s body of researchers, NASA, NOA, and the Academies of Sciences in ALL the other industrialized nations, not to mention the EPA and CARB, to understand that climate change is universally recognized as real by working scientists actually studying the data. The research and debate now is over details of damage and what to do to reverse climate change. Forget what the coal, oil, and gas industry claim because they mine or drill, not collection climate data, measuring glaciers, etc. For the medical effects, check with the American Lung Association, American Academy of Pediatrics, American Academy of Geriatrics, the AMA, Center for Disease Control, and other agencies about their policy recommendations for reductions in ozone and particulates in urban areas. Particulates need to be reduced to near zero right away, as this basically equal to dumping trash on the highway or in waterways, except that this stuff destroys lung tissue. Trashing the air is no longer acceptable. Again, forget the oil and gas industry jive about the economy, the FOX news nut cases, and stray scientist who wants to persuade you that the economy will suffer. Green initiatives will ultimately improve economic output, for data on this check with the World Bank, the US Dept of Treasury, the US Dept of Energy, and numerous economists researching the impact of green initiatives. The main problem truckers, like myself, face is the reliability of new technology equipment. The next few years will continue to see improvements in reliability, emissions reductions, and increased fuel economy, but much of this technology needs to have the bugs worked out still. It’s a crash program of technological development to save the planet.
The co that i work for tried that system and has had nothing but problems with it and the fuel mi on them droped the trucks that have the egr sys on them seem to smoke more than the ones that dont have it all you have to do is watch one when it comes to a hill
You know, Im a former otr driver. I’ve seen these changes that are happening to our trucking industry. For the little guy its tough as hell but for the big dick head companys they survive. I dont get it why is this happening to good people. Why do we have to do these stupid eco fagget laws that these green peace tree hugging hippies encourage. These same laws that are killing a way of life. They are killing good american people who are just trying to survive and support their families. Ive seen the hardship they have to endure because I am a driver still. I’m a californian that hates these bullshit laws that are killing my farming and oilfield town. I just wish californian people will get their heads out of their asses and kick some fagget ass green peace hippie wannabies asses and say Hell No! to these bullshit laws. For my trucker brothers and sisters keep on truckin and to my family in the oil patch drill baby drill. This is Tatter ToT from Fox Hunt Transport and im gone….
Look this is crap that they keep serving us all. To benifit them and there doners. I’m a truck driver. I dnt have the money to be paying out these prices. So guess wha I have to go get a loan from a bank which the government now owns. Jus so I can stay working and make a living for my family. But that big screen I wanted forget about it. That new car is out the window and I’m gng to fix my old one instead. Gng out won’t happen as often cuz I won’t have the money. When will the gov learn that these rules aren’t helping us there killing jobs and holding us against our will. For wha?? Nothing at all. And dnt talk to me about third world countrys. This is the greatest country that ever was and we are becoming a third world country cuz of all these fools that govern.
Tater Tot, I know exactly what you be talking about. I had to go get me one a them cadilidic converters for a diesel registered in Californey. Hell, the damn thing was four times what I’d have to shell out in my home state of Tennessee! I wrapped a roll of duct tape around the dang thing and stuffed some of Betty Sue’s knittin’ samplers inside and hit the road for Anchorage. She ran fine till I hit the Siskiyou Range and one of the pot holders caught fire. Smokey chased me all the way down into Weed. Let me put it this way. This ain’t no hotel I’m writin’ from. Yours truly, Bubba.
Tater tot i couldnt of said it better. Freaking politicians Republicans and democrats they are all the same the only diff is one bends us forward and the other gets slopy seconds n bend us backwards. Republicans say lower taxes more opportunities for biz but they are not talking about us. the little guys they are talking about the big corporatins making millions on a bad day… they already get huge tax cuts because they hire all the good tax people and right lawyers and democrats too eco friendly.. ohhh global warming… yea lets see we should reg the hell out of ca but at the same time mex city india etc they stay the same.. so let me get this straight we really arent doing much for the environment in the big pic.. All i know is that fuel cost are higher the pay is lower and they still want to milk us for more wtf. oh not to mention truck parts and mechanics still cost the same…
If the government wants this filter to fly they should split the cost not that stupid subsidy the gov is offering we give u 15k for ur truck so we can go buy a newer one for over 70k yea get me more in debt.. mo fos.. Truckers lets stay together. we should fight this. at least come to a compromise.
i am new to the trucking industry but my dad has his own trucking company and i have been around it for along time and now that im more involved in it. i see there is no justice what so ever.
p.s
sorry for misspelling.. on a time limit here..