In April, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled to affirm the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) authorization to the California Air Resources Board (ARB) for the Transport Refrigeration Unit Airborne Toxic Control Measure (TRU ATCM). As a result of this decision, California may continue enforcing the TRU ATCM regulation, which requires TRUs and TRU generator sets that operate in the state to meet particulate matter emissions restrictions on their diesel engines.
ARB initially planned for this regulation to take effect in December 2004, but it needed the EPA waiver to implement the in-use performance standards. After receiving the waiver, ARB announced a July 2009 enforcement date, which was then delayed until Dec. 31, 2009.
The American Trucking Associations (ATA) suit, which was filed against the EPA, targeted the legitimacy of the waiver granted in January that gave California the authority to enforce TRU ATCM. The ATA’s lawsuit claimed that the EPA did not properly consider all of the relevant facts and incorrectly applied the law when granting California a waiver. ATA suggested that the EPA erred when deciding not to consider the effect on other states’ abilities to choose whether or not to opt-in to California’s emissions regulations. Since TRU ATCM affects vehicles registered in other states, the ATA argued that California was taking away the opt-in choice from other states and creating a new de-facto federal standard.
The lawsuit also claimed that the EPA did not give appropriate consideration to the cost of compliance when determining whether or not TRU ATCM provided affected companies the lead time necessary for compliance. Further, the suit alleged that neither the EPA nor ARB made any rational attempt to estimate or consider the total compliance costs for out-of-state vehicles impacted by this rule.
In addition, the suit called into question California’s need for standards which principally impact out-of-state carriers “to meet compelling and extraordinary conditions” within the state, as required for authorization under the Clean Air Act.
After reviewing the ATA’s argument, the court sided with the EPA on all points.
TRU ATCM Compliance
TRU ATCM is designed to use a phased approach over 15 years to reduce the diesel particulate matter emissions from in-use TRU and TRU generator set engines that operate in California. As adopted, the compliance dates for meeting the in-use performance standards are based on engine model year.
However, since new TRUs produced in the first three months of the year are typically equipped with engines from the prior model year, TRU owners believe they lose up to a year of useful life before TRU ATCM compliance is required when taking delivery of a new TRU manufactured in the first few months of a calendar year (if that unit is equipped with an engine of the prior model year). In order to maximize useful life, customers are likely to wait for the engines with a model year matching the unit manufacture year. This would result in disruption of the production cycle for several months, which would impact the availability of new TRUs.
ARB has decided that the TRU manufacture year may be used instead of engine model year to determine in-use performance standards that must be met and the related compliance dates. However, the TRU unit manufacture year shown on the unit label can be no more than one year later than the TRU engine model year shown on the engine label. If the difference is greater than one year, then the engine model year must be used.
ARB is also considering additional revisions to TRU ATCM, including easing in-use emissions standards for model year (MY) 2003 engines of 25 hp or more and for MY 2003 and 2004 engines of 25 hp or less.
Visit www.arb.ca.gov/die for more information on TRU ATCM, including FAQs and compliance details, or call ARB’s sel/tru.htmTRU Helpline at 1-888-878-2826.
SmartWay Trailer Certification Requirement to Take Effect
As of Jan. 1, 2010, no 2011 or subsequent model year 53' or longer box-type trailer (dry, refrigerated or curtainside vans) may be pulled by a heavy-duty tractor on a highway in California unless it is either SmartWay-certified or has been retrofitted with equipment to meet SmartWay technical requirements and specifications.
SmartWay requirements for 53' or longer box-type trailers include:
- Low-rolling resistance tires that provide a 3% fuel economy benefit, relative to mid-range rolling resistance tires
- Trailer side fairings and trailer front-mounted gap fairings or trailer rear-mounted fairings or boat tails.
This regulation is expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 1 million metric tons of carbon dioxide-equivalents by 2020, statewide. Over the 11 years between 2010 and the end of 2020, it is estimated that truckers and trucking companies will save about $8.6 billion when diesel fuel consumption is reduced by as much as 750 million gallons in California and 5 billion gallons across the nation.
Looking Ahead
Even though these regulations are California-based, they stand to have a national impact on the trailer industry, and it is important for all NTDA members to be as well-informed as possible. The Association will continue to monitor these issues and report any changes or updates to members on a timely basis.
Sources:
www.arb.ca.gov/diesel/tru.htm; http://www.arb.ca.gov/cc/hdghg/hdghg.htm; TRU Advisory 08-01.