San Diego Area Contractors, Construction Workers Warn Proposed Air Rules Could Result in Loss of Jobs, Jeopardize Crucial Highway Improvement Projects
May 24, 2007
San Diego, CA – Members of the Coalition to Build a Cleaner California today warned that the new California Air Resources Board (CARB) regulations set for hearing on Friday in San Diego would have a devastating impact on the San Diego area’s construction industry, labor workforce, and on future highway improvement projects. The CARB staff proposal imposes new regulations for off-road (construction equipment) diesel engines, and is designed to reduce the amount of Particulate Matter (PM) and NOx emissions from off-road diesel equipment such as bulldozers, backhoes, and scrapers.
Appearing at a construction site along Interstate 15, local contractors, construction workers and other infrastructure stakeholders reaffirmed their commitment to playing an active role in improving the state’s air quality in a realistic and achievable manner. The coalition members warned that admirable as the regulations may be, as they are currently written, the goals are simply unachievable and will only result in 10,000 to 30,000 lost jobs, delayed infrastructure improvement projects and unmet clean air goals.
“The Coalition to Build a Cleaner California is committed to playing an active role in improving the state’s air quality,” said Mike Shaw of the Engineering & General Contractors Association. “In fact, over the past five years in Southern California alone, more than 1,000 high polluting machines have been replaced, resulting in a reduction of more than 3,787 tons of pollution every year. But CARB’s new accelerated targets, while laudable, are not realistic in the given time frame.”
In 2000, when CARB first announced its intention to issue PM reduction regulations, they called for an 18-year timeline to meet the goals. Many businesses began taking proactive steps to clean up their fleets and improve air quality. Seven years later, CARB is finally getting to regulations, but the timeframe has been reduced from 18 years to 13 years and CARB has included diesel engine technology that doesn’t exist yet as part of the clean air goal calculations.
The new regulations, the most expensive ever proposed by CARB, would reduce the buying power of the more than $40 billion in infrastructure bonds voters approved in November by more than $2 billion dollars, meaning fewer roads, schools, housing and levees will be built and the pace of these projects will be slowed. In its own staff report CARB conceded, “The regulation is expected to increase the cost of construction, mined materials, and other services performed by off-road vehicles in the state. Customers that could expect to pay higher construction costs include developers, home builders, and government agencies sponsoring road construction and other transportation projects.” (CARB Staff Report, P. 39)
“California and San Diego voters are tired of government making promises with tax dollars and then hearing about cost over-runs and projects not completed on schedule,” said John Nelson, President of FCI Constructors. “CARB owes it to all of us to explain exactly how these proposed regulations will impact transportation projects, the infrastructure bonds recently approved by the voters and specifically projects here in San Diego.”
“No one on this coalition is opposed to moving towards cleaner construction equipment,” said Randy Thornhill of the United Brothers of Carpenters and Joiners. “But if the rule doesn’t work, it will do more harm than good. We must find an achievable solution, not one that just looks good on paper.”
The Coalition to Build a Cleaner California is committed to playing an active role in improving the state’s air quality and has pledged to work with CARB to develop regulations that are achievable. The proposed regulations are based upon faulty assumptions that overstate the availability of technology; understate the economic impact on the industry and its workers; and the detrimental impact upon the cost and timing of the infrastructure bond construction projects approved by voters last year.