| June 4, 2004
In an effort to continue implementing all of its clean fleet rules -- a key
strategy to reduce toxic and smog-forming emissions -- the Southland’s air
quality agency today asked the state to submit the fleet rules to the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for a waiver from a prohibition in the
federal Clean Air Act.
“We have a mandate and a responsibility to do everything possible to
reduce toxic and smog-forming air pollution that potentially harms the
health of Southern California’s 16 million residents,” said Barry
Wallerstein, executive officer of the South Coast Air Quality Management
District.
“We need the federal government to recognize the importance of the fleet
rules in this effort,” he said.
On April 28 the Supreme Court of the United States issued a decision
stating that the fleet rules’ purchase requirements are emission standards
subject to the preemption provision in the federal Clean Air Act. (Engine
Manufacturers Association v. South Coast Air Quality Management District,
Case No. 02-1343). The Supreme Court remanded the case to federal district
court to determine whether AQMD is pre-empted from implementing the rules
insofar as they require operators of public fleets to purchase the cleaner
and lower-emitting vehicles among those commercially available for sale.
(For details on AQMD’s fleet rule policy in the wake of the Supreme Court
decision, see an advisory on the web at
http://www.aqmd.gov/tao/FleetRules/advisory01.pdf.)
Section 209 of the federal Clean Air Act prohibits states and local
governments from adopting or enforcing motor vehicle emission standards.
However, the Clean Air Act provides that the EPA Administrator shall grant
California a waiver for standards that the State of California finds are as
protective of public health as the federal standards.
In today’s action the AQMD Governing Board concluded that the fleet rules
are as protective of health as the federal standards and vehicles purchased
under the rules will be as clean as or cleaner than federally certified
vehicles. The AQMD will now request the California Air Resources Board to
make such a finding and then submit all of the fleet rules, as they apply to
both public and private fleets, to the EPA for a waiver under the federal
Clean Air Act.
Adoption of the fleet rules followed the agency’s 1999 Multiple Air
Toxics Exposure Study, which showed that 70 percent of the cancer risk from
air pollution is due to diesel exhaust. Most of the vehicles regulated
under the fleet rules are diesel-powered.
AQMD’s fleet rules include seven measures requiring fleet operators of
transit buses, school buses, trash trucks, airport shuttles and taxis,
street sweepers and publicly owned heavy-duty trucks, to buy clean-fueled
models when they replace vehicles or add to their fleets of 15 or more
vehicles. Since their adoption, the rules have put more than 5,500
clean-fueled and lower-emission vehicles on the road.
In other action today, the Board:
- Adopted a $102 million budget for fiscal year 2004-05, which reflects
a $700,000 increase in expenditures over last year due to an increase in
mandated retirement contributions and the continuing reduction in revenues
from emission fees. The budget includes funding for 754 positions, which
reflects a planned reduction of 44 positions by attrition. Adjusted for
inflation, today’s budget is 38 percent less than a decade ago.
- Tentatively adopted a 3 percent across-the-board increase in
permitting, operating and emission fees for fiscal year 2004-05. The
Board is scheduled to formally adopt the increase next month. This
increase will more closely align actual program costs with program
revenues;
- Set a public hearing for August 6 to consider Proposed Rule 1127 –
Emission Reductions from Livestock Waste;
- Awarded $145,000 in funding for the purchase of one 84-passenger
compressed natural gas (CNG) bus to be used in a demonstration program
that will provide school districts and school bus providers “hands-on”
familiarity with a CNG school bus prior to purchase; and
- Amended Rule 1186.1 – Less Polluting Sweepers and Rule 1196 – Clean
On-Road Heavy-Duty Public Fleet Vehicles, to extend the compliance dates
in order to address vehicle purchase options in areas where fueling
stations for alternative fuel vehicles are not readily available for
fleets.
AQMD is the air pollution control agency for Orange County and major
portions of Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Riverside counties.
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