Good news and bad news from the state of California regarding the impending January 1, 2010 statewide ban of older diesel drayage trucks.
The good news is that the California Air Resources Board has extended the ban start date to April 30, 2010.
The bad news is that the extension only applies to a very small number of truck owners– namely those that have already been approved for state grants to retrofit their trucks but have not yet received the funds from the state.
Truckers throughout the state have been petitioning Sacramento to extend the deadline, which threatens to idle thousands of port-servicing trucks as of Jan. 1, 2010. CARB is instituting the ban in an effort to dramatically cut diesel emissions throughout the state.
The new CARB extension will allow trucks pre-approved for retrofit or upgrade funds to continue operating in the ports and rail yards until the funds are made available or April 30, 2010, whichever comes first. CARB will be offering stickers to trucks that fit the extension criteria.
These include:
- The truck is approved for air quality incentive funding administered by the air districts in the South Coast, Bay Area, San Joaquin Valley, San Diego, Imperial or Port of Long Beach under a Proposition 1B truck retrofit or replacement grant, or
- The truck is approved for air quality incentive funding administered by the air districts in the South Coast or Bay Area or the Port of Long Beach, operating under a related non-Proposition 1B drayage truck incentive program for scrappage and replacement with a diesel or alternative fuel truck meeting 2007 emission levels or retrofitted with a CARB-verified level 3 PM filter, or
- The truck is covered by an incentive program contract that was fully executed by Dec. 4, 2009, or
- The incentive applicant has been notified in writing by an air district or port that the specific truck has been selected for funding after a successful pre-inspection and compliance check and the applicant submitted a valid purchase order to the local agency by Dec. 4, 2009.
Last month, more than 1,000 drayage truckers in the Bay Area were notified that their applications for state funding were denied after the $22 million in set-aside state funds for retrofits and upgrades ran out. None of these denied applicants would be eligible for the new CARB extension and will be banned from entering ports and rail yards on Jan. 1, 2010.
