California’s Air Resources Board downshifted this month by offering contractors “relief.” The regulatory board says it will delay enforcement of its emissions regulations—which were set to go into effect on March 1—for existing off-road diesel machinery until it receives a waiver from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Construction lobbyists say the move is counterproductive to their recommendation to fully delay the rules for two more years.
“CARB’s offer to not enforce the off-road regulation—a rule that it cannot fully enforce without a waiver from the federal EPA—as ‘relief’ is disingenuous at best,” says Mike Lewis, senior vice president of the Construction Industry Air Quality Coalition, whose members include the Associated General Contractors of California, the Building Industry Association of Southern California and the Southern California Contractors Association. The move “will not save a single job, nor will it stop the loss of thousands or more jobs as contractors struggle to comply with the looming deadlines in the off-road rule.”