Construction industry battles rule for engine upgrades; business coalition launches attack on state Air Resources Board.

IT'S the biggest showdown on a California environmental regulation so far this year.

In less than two weeks, state air regulators, backed by environmental groups, are poised to adopt a sweeping rule that would require construction firms to spend millions of dollars to purchase less-polluting bulldozers and backhoes or retrofit their existing equipment with cleaner-burning engines.

The construction industry has mounted an all-out campaign to block--or at least delay--the rule, recently forming the Coalition to Build a Cleaner California. "Don't Let Sacramento Steamroll Your Construction Business," screams the headline on the coalition's home page.

"The California Air Resources Board has proposed off-road diesel regulations that will cost you millions of dollars and require you to retrofit, repower or replace your bulldozers, backhoes and other heavy-duty off-mad equipment over a very short period of time with newer engines--some that aren't even available today," coalition coordinator Mike Lewis said in his message to construction businesses on the Web site.

The new regulation comes on the heels of soaring concrete and steel prices, which already have significantly raised the price of construction projects. The coalition has warned that the regulation could further drive up the cost of taxpayer-funded public works project, including voter-approved bond measures for lens of billions of dollars in infrastructure improvements.

The air board's proposed regulations would require an 85 percent cut in diesel emissions by 2020 from off-road vehicles used for industrial purposes, chiefly construction and mining. In its staff report, the agency said the rule would impact an estimated 8,000 off-road vehicle fleets in a wide array of industries, from construction to mining to ski resorts. The vast majority of fleets, though, are in the construction sector.

The agency projects that the regulation would reduce emissions of nitrogen oxides by 48 tons per day and eliminate another 5 tons per day of microscopic particulates. Nitrogen oxides are a key component of smog, while particulates can penetrate the lungs, causing damage.

"The easiest way for small and mid-sized construction firms to comply would be to shrink the size of their fleets, which means fewer employees and smaller jobs," Lewis told the Business Journal last week.

But environmental groups are lobbying for passage of the rule and have blasted the construction industry for its opposition. "The public's health can't afford to go without this proposed rule any longer and the construction industry can afford to pay for it because it gets billions of dollars in public contracts," said Environmental Defense in a recent press release.

The air board is set to consider adopting the rule at its May 25 meeting in San Diego. For more information on the regulation, go to arb.ca.gov. To find out more about the construction industry coalition, log on to ciaqc.com.

Staff reporter Howard Fine can be reached at [e-mail], or at [phone], ext. 227.