Comment Log Display

March 19, 2007

Dr. Robert Sawyer, Chairman
California Air Resources Board
1001 “I” Street
Sacramento, CA 95812 

Dear Dr. Sawyer:

A great deal has been written concerning the Air Resources Board’s
portable equipment program and the recently adopted emergency
regulation disallowing registration of the 6,000 to 10,000 Tier 0
engines after the effective date of that regulation. As a former
Executive Officer of the South Coast Air Quality Management
District, I can appreciate the frustration regulators felt trying
to persuade owners for several years to register their portable
equipment so it could be operated legally, and I can understand
their compelling desire to punish those owners for failing to
comply by permanently prohibiting their registration even though
previously registered Tier 0 engines can continue to operate until
2010.       

ARB needs to remember that over 80% of portable equipment owners
have never been exposed to ARB, district regulations or their web
sites and, therefore, are totally unaware of their powers and
jurisdiction. After all, this is the first time ARB has regulated
the equipment of small private owners.  So their lack of response
to the ARB registration edict is not surprising. 

ARB and the air districts must consider that, unless their annual
operating budgets are increased dramatically, their enforcement
personnel will probably not be able to enforce a statewide
prohibition on that many engines with the limited number of
inspectors available and their other higher priority
responsibilities. 

Also, as I recall, CAPCOA did indicate when the ARB adopted its
emergency regulation in December 2006 prohibiting the operation of
unregistered Tier 0 portable engines, the California Air Pollution
Control Officers Association (CAPCOA) offered to allow Tier 0
engines to be registered in some of its districts.    

Consequently, ARB should weigh the merits of offering a compromise
to portable equipment owners by allowing them to register their
Tier 0 engines until 2009, when they would be required to be
replaced with certified engines.  

In my judgment, registering those engines now would in the long
run be in the best interests of air quality.
 
Respectfully,


Jeb Stuart
Construction Industry Air Quality Coalition