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Clean-Air Rule Targets Existing Diesel-Truck Fleet

By Daniel B. Wood and Alison Tully

A new air cleanup rule approved Sept. 27 promises faster replacement or retrofitting of the dirtiest trucks on the road: the diesel-powered big rigs that ply southern California's highways by the tens of thousands on their way to and from the Port of Los Angeles, the nation's busiest.

Although California and its network of air-pollution control districts have battled for decades to clean up the skies – and have more measures on the drawing board – this regulation targeting trucking is likely to have the biggest impact and to become a model for other places with serious pollution problems, say environmentalists.

"This is a big deal nationally because it requires the fixing of problems on trucks that are already on the road," says Kathryn Phillips, manager of California Clean Air for Life Campaign, a program of Environmental Defense. "This could mean reaching lower emissions from trucks ... 10 to 20 years sooner than would happen if we just waited for older trucks to wear out and be replaced at their natural pace." Click here to read the full story.