The regulation is projected to cost the trucking industry somewhere between $3.6 to $5.5 billion from 2010 to 2021. ARB is in the midst of allocating $1 billion in Proposition 1B funds, much of which will go toward helping truckers retrofit and replace trucks. Other entities, including the US EPA and several California ports are offering financial assistance.

ARB is hosting a set of public workshops to discuss the revised regulation later this month and in June—the fifth set of workshops since the initial regulatory concept was presented during public workshops in April 2007. At the workshops, staff plans to discuss:

• Revisions to the proposed regulatory language presented in January 2008, and staff’s revised emission benefit and cost analyses. The proposed revisions include requirements for the installation of diesel particulate filters (DPFs) for some vehicles beginning in 2010 and 2011, and engine turnover requirements starting in 2012. The proposed revisions do not require more than a single engine/truck replacement.

• Revisions to the Public Agency and Utility Regulation to include light heavy-duty diesel engines operated by municipalities and utilities in that regulation, and to clarify the best available control technology requirements.

• Revisions to staff’s proposed concepts for efficiency improvements from tractors and trailers operating in the state. The proposed revisions include limiting the requirements to tractors/trailer combinations that are hauling 53 foot long box trailers.

Staff will also separately discuss in breakout sessions how school districts may be affected by the requirements in the proposed regulation for the installation of DPFs on public and private school buses.

The language of the proposed regulation will be available from the ARB On-Road Heavy-Duty Diesel Vehicles (In-Use) Regulation site.

This draft regulation addresses the largest unregulated source of diesel emissions in the state. Between 2010 and 2020, ARB estimates that the regulation will prevent 11,000 premature deaths associated with exposure to diesel exhaust, and save roughly $500 million in health care costs during that same period.

Emissions from diesel particulate matter are associated with causing a variety of health effects including premature death and a number of heart and lung diseases. A recent study looking at the health impacts to West Oakland, California residents posed by diesel emissions estimates the yearly non-cancer health impacts resulting from exposure to port-related diesel particulate matter emissions in the area: 18 premature deaths (age 30 and older), 290 asthma attacks, 2,600 days of work loss, and 15,000 minor restricted activity episodes. Most of the risk comes from diesel particulate matter emissions from trucks traveling on nearby freeways and marine vessel traffic in the San Francisco Bay Area unrelated to the Port of Oakland.

Later this year, ARB will also consider adopting another proposed regulation involving ocean-going vessel main engines to further reduce diesel soot. State control measures will contribute to an approximate decrease of 80% in harmful emissions by 2015.