Calif. Agencies Lock Horns Over Diesel Sulfur

August 3, 2000 9:30 AM, EDT

California truckers are caught in the middle of political test of wills between the state’s two most powerful air quality agencies over diesel sulfur levels.

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The South Coast Air Quality Management District wants to require carriers to fill up with super-low-sulfur diesel by 2004. The California Air Resources Board calls that plan risky and wants to wait until 2006 when federal regulators plan to introduce a new fuel-formulation standard.

Truckers have sided with CARB. The California Trucking Association says it wants cleaner fuel, but not if its members are the only ones using it.

The AQMD board voted July 21 to hold a public hearing on its proposal to require service stations in the counties of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino to sell diesel fuel with sulfur levels of 15 parts per million or less by 2004. After the Sept. 15 hearing the board will vote on the plan.

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