ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The American Trucking Associations, along with their California arm, is urging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to prevent the state’s environmental regulators from implementing demanding performance standards on all engines used to cool refrigerated tractor-trailers.

The ATA and California Trucking Association says the new rule mandated by the California Air Resources Board will require trucks to comply with California-specific regulations, thus creating a de facto national standard.

In comments filed with the EPA, ATA said the impacts of California’s new engine emission regulations will extend far beyond the state’s borders. The requirement will force nearly 340,000 refrigerated tractor-trailers nationwide to comply with California regulations, regardless of the amount of time spent operating in the state.

After going after idling trucks, California now sets
its sights on reefers headed to the state

“This number, which is 30 times greater than ARB assumed in its original estimate, will require 75 percent of the total refrigerated tractor-trailers outside of California to either be retrofitted, scrapped, or replaced with new equipment during the life of the rule,” ATA stated in a press release.

“ARB’s request goes beyond the authority afforded California under the Federal Clean Air Act,” said ATA Assistant General and Environmental Counsel Glen Kedzie said in the same release. “This rule is contrary to the very intent of Congress under the Act by effectively creating a new national engine emissions standard.”

ARB adopted the regulation requiring any diesel engine used to power refrigerated trucks operating in the state to meet stringent California-only standards before the end of 2008. To comply with the rule, ARB said that fleets could retrofit existing refrigerated units, replace existing engines, establish a 7-year trade-in cycle, or create California-only refrigerated fleets.

However, most long-haul trucking companies operating refrigerated units service much of the continental U.S. and many Canadian provinces, therefore the burden of the regulatory requirement is placed primarily on engines located outside the state.

The trucking industry is already confronted with strict, EPA-mandated truck engines in 2007, as well as low-sulfur fuel regulations for those engines.

ATA also said the regulation will cost the motor carrier industry between US$775 million and $1.4 billion. ARB estimated costs would range between $87 million and $156 million.

California has some of the strictest emissions and anti-idling rules in North America. In October, CARB passed a regulation prohibiting heavy-duty trucks with sleepers from idling for more than 5 minutes.

Other equipment like Auxiliary Power Units (APUs) may be on CARB’s hit list as well. The agency considering a ban on use of diesel-powered APUs, or significant emission cuts to those small engines, beginning in January 2007.