BOARD MEETING DATE: May 2, 2003
AGENDA NO. 26

Mobile Source Committee

SYNOPSIS:

The Mobile Source Committee met Friday, April 25, 2003. Following is a summary of that meeting.

RECOMMENDED ACTION:

Receive and file.

S. Roy Wilson, Ed.D., Chair
Mobile Source Committee

Attendance

The meeting started at 9:05 a.m. Present: Committee Chair Roy Wilson, Committee Vice Chair Jane Carney, Committee Members Fred Aguiar, William Craycraft, Ron Loveridge (arrived at 9:40 a.m.), and Jim Silva (departed at 9:30 a.m.).

ACTION ITEM
 

1)

Approve Exchange of Gasoline-Powered Lawn Mowers with Electric Mowers in Riverside and Orange Counties (Funded from Rule 2202 Air Quality Investment Program)

As background information, staff noted that gas-powered lawn mowers contribute to regional smog by emitting pollutants such as VOCs, NOx and CO. Replacing the gas-powered lawn mowers with zero emission electric lawn mowers can reduce significant amounts of these three pollutants. Under a recent program, AQMD staff hosted two lawn mower exchange events in the Los Angeles and San Bernardino Counties, respectively. Based on the success of these events, staff recommends allocating funds from the Rule 2202 Air Quality Investment Program (AQIP), in an amount not exceeding $453,500, to exchange 1,500 gasoline-powered lawn mowers in the Riverside and Orange counties with electric mowers. Committee Member Fred Aguiar moved to recommend approval of this item to the Governing Board and Committee Member William Craycraft seconded. The motion was passed unanimously.

INFORMATION ITEMS
 

2)	Proposed Amendments to Rule 1193
	Staff provided the Committee an overview of the proposed amendments to Rule 1193 - Clean On-Road Residential and Commercial Waste Collection Vehicle. In June 2002, the Board extended the rule compliance for dual fueled collection vehicles to July 1, 2003. In addition, the Board directed staff to conduct in-use emissions testing of dual fuel collection vehicles to determine the emissions benefits of this technology compared to dedicated diesel fueled and natural gas fueled collection vehicles. Staff was directed to bring back to the Board its findings and recommendation regarding the sunset date for the dual fueled collection vehicles. Staff informed the Committee that there were problems in the in-use testing of the dedicated natural gas engines, in that the individual vehicles tested had engine performance problems that were not anticipated. The resulting emissions from these vehicles were inconsistent with previous in-use test studies. Since the testing, staff discovered that the vehicles were out of normal operating specifications and the vehicles have been subsequently repaired. To address the directive of the Board, staff presented results from an earlier in-use emissions study of collection vehicles located in Pennsylvania. The results of that study indicated that the natural gas vehicles exhibited about a 32 percent reduction in nitrogen oxides compared to their diesel counterparts. The certified emission levels are about 37 percent. Based on in-use emissions testing of the dual fueled engines compared to the diesel fueled engines, staff found that the dual fueled engines provided about 20 percent reduction in nitrogen oxides. However, based on the dual fueled engine certification data, the dual fueled technology should have achieved about a 35 percent reduction in nitrogen oxides. Staff is proposing an extension of the sunset date by one year to allow operators to further assess options for rule compliant engines. In addition, staff has proposed language to introduce "pilot ignition" technology as a rule compliant technology. Pilot ignition technology is a form of dual fuel technology. However, diesel fuel usage is limited to no more than 10 percent and diesel fuel could not be used during idling. Staff believes that this technology is much cleaner than the current generation of dual fuel engines. However, engines will not be commercially available for at least one year for the collection vehicle application. Furthermore, staff is proposing to conduct further in-use emissions testing of newer dedicated natural gas engines and diesel engines to compare to the dual fuel engines.
3)	Draft 2003 AQMP: Report on AQMD’s Proposed Mobile Source-Related Measures and Report on Transportation Budget Methodology
	Laki Tisopulos, Assistant Deputy Executive Officer, Planning, Rule Development, Area Sources, provided a report on the District’s mobile sources control measures in the draft 2003 AQMP, the comments received on these measures, and the basis for CARB’s proposed transportation conformity emission budgets. The draft 2003 AQMP contains three District control measures that affect mobile sources. The impetus for these control measures is the size of the black box (those emission reductions which rely on future technology advances), and U.S. EPA’s expressed unwillingness to accept emission reduction assignments under the draft 2003 AQMP. The first is a control measure that establishes a mitigation fee program for federal sources such as planes, trains, and ships as an alternative to federal regulation of these sources (e.g., national standards). This mearure would establish a fee program in which U.S. EPA or operators of federal sources would pay a fee based on specific criteria to be established. The collected fees would in turn be used to fund other emission reduction projects by the AQMD. The main public comments received on this measure questioned the AQMD’s legal authority to implement such a program, and expressed concerns over insufficient specificity on implementation, cost, and emission data. The second control measure seeks emission reductions from in-use off-road mobile vehicles and equipment by requiring retrofits and operational controls if the state and federal agencies do not adequately control these sources. Public comments focused on the redundancy with state and federal measures and lack of adequate emissions inventory and baseline estimates. An emission fee program for port-related mobile sources is the third proposed mobile source control measure. This measure seeks to establish a fee program for on-road and off-road mobile sources that operate at the ports. Such sources would include ships, trains, off-road port equipment, and trucks entering and leaving the ports. Similar public comments were made regarding AQMD’s authority, potential overlap with other District measures, and that the generated fees should be used in nearby communities. A summary of suggested control measures by the AQMP Advisory’s technical subcommittee was also presented. These proposals included a list of demand-side strategies such as differential pricing for passenger cars and recreational engines; expanding the fleet rules to private fleets; and amending the Smog Check Program to include a remote sensing element. A summary of CARB’s proposed transportation emission budgets was also presented. This was presented as an informational item to the committee to indicate that AQMD staff still had some unresolved issues related to CARB’s approach. The principle issue is that excluding the long-term measures in the emission budgets might cause an over-reliance on stationary source emission reductions if planned reductions from mobile sources came up short. Several Committee Members expressed concerns that any emission fee program for port-related mobile sources or federal sources should consider how to measure benefits of the emission reduction projects prior to establishing the fee. In addition, it was stressed that an alternative compliance option in lieu of the fee be established for the applicable sources. Staff concurred with these recommendations and indicated that the control measures will be further developed to indicate how the fee programs would be implemented and to specify the criteria for selecting emission reduction projects.
4)	Draft 2003 AQMP: CARB’s Proposed Control Measure OFF-RD LSI-3 - Require New Forklift Purchases and Forklift Rentals Be Electric – Lift Capacity <8,000 lbs
	Mary Reynolds, CEO of the Western Propane Gas Association (WPGA), and Greg Gilbert, consultant to WPGA, gave a brief presentation to the Committee covering the propane industry’s concerns on CARB’s proposed Control Measure LSI-3. Mainly these are: inaccurate emission estimates in the proposed control measure and impact on South Coast businesses. Conclusions of WPGA’s study of proposed Control Measure LSI-3 are as follows: revised emission analysis being conducted by CARB staff and WPGA shows much lower benefits; potential "unintended consequences" (retention of older lifts, diesel "bubble", etc.) are not accounted for in CARB’s analysis; "real, quantifiable, claimable" benefits will be much more expensive than estimated; local socioeconomic impacts to LPG, forklift, and secondary serving businesses will be substantial and disparate, e.g. substantial job loss, etc. WPGA also commented that alternatives via early introduction of LSI-2 and other low-emission LPG engines could surpass proposed Control Measure LSI-3’s limited benefits, but have not been adequately explored; and proposed that proposed Control Measure LSI-3 should be thoroughly reviewed for costs, benefits, business and socioeconomic impacts. Committee Chair Wilson recommended that staff conduct an analysis of the data presented and report back to the Committee at the next meeting.
5)	Rule 2202 Activity Report
	Rule 2202 Summary Status Report submitted, no comments.
6)	Monthly Report on Environmental Justice Initiatives
	Item #4 – CEQA Commenting: a. CEQA Document Commenting Update: Written report submitted, no comments.
7)	Quarterly Status Report on Mobile and Area Source Credits for RECLAIM
	Written report submitted, no comments.
8)	Other Business
	None.
9)	Public Comment
	None.

The meeting adjourned at 10:30 a.m.

Attachment

Attendance Roster

SOUTH COAST AIR QUALITY MANAGEMENT DISTRICT
MOBILE SOURCE COMMITTEE

APRIL 25, 2003


ATTENDANCE ROSTER