California Board Adopts Major Diesel Emission Curbs

California’s Air Resources Board unanimously approved a proposal that would require diesel engines to reduce emissions by 75% in the next decade, according to several news sources.

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The proposal, one of the toughest crackdowns on diesel emissions in the United States, would require retrofitting of tractor-trailers, construction equipment and anything else powered by diesel engines for cleaner fuels, particulate traps (filters designed to capture soot from exhaust) and the use of low-sulfur diesel by 2007, according to these reports.

Once the proposal is fully implemented, state officials said they expect the emission of harmful particles to be reduced by approximately 75% by 2010 and 85% by 2020, the Sacramento Bee noted.

California has more than 1.2 million vehicles with diesel engines, which produce approximately 28,000 tons of pollution into the air each year, the board said in the Reuters report. Under the proposal, about 90% of these existing vehicles will be retrofitted with filters to trap soot particles.

According to the board, diesel fumes, soot and combustion products cause 70% of the cancer risk from breathing the state’s air, the Sacramento Bee noted. Miniscule particles in diesel exhaust can lodge in the lungs and have been linked to cancer, the article said.

Reuters noted that California is the only state with power to adopt emissions control stricter than federal standards. That’s because the state agency existed before the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

The California Trucking Association was in support of the proposal, director of environmental affairs Stephanie Williams told the Bee, because truck drivers had actually feared a stricter and more expensive resolution might pass, the Bee said.