Environmental Valuation & Cost-Benefit News

Link: http://www.arb.ca.gov/newsrel/nr121208.htm

[On December 12, 2008 The California Air Resources Board adopted two] regulations directly aimed at cleaning up harmful emissions from the estimated one million heavy-duty diesel trucks that operate in California. Beginning January 1, 2011, the Statewide Truck and Bus rule will require truck owners to install diesel exhaust filters on their rigs, with nearly all vehicles upgraded by 2014. Owners must also replace engines older than the 2010 model year according to a staggered implementation schedule that extends from 2012 to 2022.

Also adopted today, the Heavy Duty Vehicle Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction measure requires long-haul truckers to install fuel efficient tires and aerodynamic devices on their trailers that lower greenhouse gas emissions and improve fuel economy.

"Today's vote marks a milestone in the history of California's air quality," said ARB Chairman Mary Nichols. "The Board's actions will not only help protect the health of 38 million Californians, they will also ensure that California continues strongly on its path to achieving clean air. And in light of today's extremely challenging financial climate, I am also pleased to say that the Governor, legislature and voters have made available more than one billion dollars in grants and loan programs to help truckers and business owners comply with this vital public health measure."

Heavy-duty big rigs are the largest remaining source of unregulated diesel emissions, responsible for 32 percent of the smog-forming emissions and nearly 40 percent of the cancer-causing emissions from diesel mobile sources (other diesel emitters include trains, off-road vehicles and marine engines). The greenhouse gas reduction measure applies to more than 500,000 trailers, while the diesel regulation applies to about 400,000 heavy duty vehicles that are registered in the state, and about 500,000 out-of-state vehicles that do business in California. However, because many heavy duty vehicles are replaced or retired due to normal business practices on a faster schedule than what the new regulation will require, the number of vehicles expected to be retrofit by 2014 under the rule is about 230,000, while up to 350,000 vehicles would be replaced earlier than normal over the next 15 years.

To help truck owners upgrade their vehicles, the state is offering more than a billion dollars in funding opportunities. Options include Carl Moyer grants, which are designated for early or surplus compliance with diesel regulations; Proposition 1B funds, for air quality improvements related to goods movement; and AB 118, which establishes a low-cost truck loan program to help pay for early compliance with the truck rule. In addition, ARB is evaluating ways to integrate these programs so that truckers can get a grant and a loan at the same time, minimizing paperwork and significantly reducing the monthly payments for a new truck loan.

To provide flexibility, the diesel regulation is structured so that owners can choose from among three compliance options to meet regulation requirements. There are exceptions to the regulation, including low-use vehicles, emergency and military vehicles, and personal use motor homes. School buses would be subject only to requirements for reducing diesel particulate matter and not for engine replacement.

California has the nation's most polluted air. Because of new engine standards established in 2001, diesel engines operating in California have been getting cleaner, but they are not getting clean fast enough to meet air quality goals. With the new State Bus and Truck rule in place, by 2014, diesel emissions will be 68 percent lower than they would be without the regulation, while emissions of the smog-forming pollutant NOx (oxides of nitrogen) will be 25 percent lower.

Diesel emissions are associated with cancer and exacerbate cardiovascular and respiratory ailments, as do smog-forming emissions. The truck regulation is expected to save 9,400 lives between 2011 and 2025, and greatly reduce health care costs. These benefits have an estimated value of $48 billion to $69 billion. The cost of installing the trailer greenhouse-gas-reducing technologies will be quickly recouped through lower fuel use.

ARB staff held dozens of workshops and met with hundreds of business owners and other stakeholders over the last 20 months. Without the diesel regulation, California will not be able to meet U.S. EPA-mandated air quality standards and deadlines, and could subsequently lose billions of dollars in federal highway funding.

To reduce diesel emissions and improve air quality and public health, the ARB adopted a Diesel Risk Reduction Plan in 2000 and has already passed regulations addressing urban buses, garbage trucks, school bus and truck idling, stationary engines, transport refrigeration units, cargo handling equipment at ports and rail yards, off-road vehicles, port trucks and other sources.

For more information on the Statewide Bus and Truck Regulation, go here: http://www.arb.ca.gov/regact/2008/truckbus08/truckbus08.htm .

Fore more information on the Heavy Duty Vehicle Greenhouse Gas Reduction Measure go here: http://www.arb.ca.gov/regact/2008/ghghdv08/ghghdv08.htm.

The Air Resources Board is a department of the California Environmental Protection Agency. ARB's mission is to promote and protect public health, welfare, and ecological resources through effective reduction of air pollutants while recognizing and considering effects on the economy. The ARB oversees all air pollution control efforts in California to attain and maintain health based air quality standards.

The California Air Resources Board (ARB) www.arb.ca.gov
December 12, 2008

Link: http://www.arb.ca.gov/newsrel/nr092508.htm

Regulations adopted on September 25, 2008 by the California Air Resources Board will reduce toxic gasoline emissions from outboard marine tanks and components by up to 4.2 tons per day by 2020, saving consumers about 4.6 gallons of gasoline per year in lost fuel.
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Gasoline vapors contain smog-forming pollutants along with toxics such as benzene, which have long been associated with cancer and other negative health effects.

Scheduled for implementation starting Jan. 1, 2010, the regulations impose standards on tanks, fuel hoses, primer bulbs and caps and incorporate tools already used by ARB to limit gasoline emissions from portable fuel containers and small off-road engines and equipment. ARB staff worked with representatives of tank and fuel hose manufacturers to develop the new performance standards, and has held public workshops to discuss and develop the rule.

The regulations will cost consumers about $10 more when they purchase a new tank and components, but the new products will save consumers more than $16 per tank per year, assuming gasoline costs $3.50 per gallon. The end result is an estimated overall reduction of about 90 million pounds of gasoline emissions from the state's estimated 200,000 outboard marine tanks over the next 18 years (the time it will take to replace existing tanks and components), and savings to the consumer as well.

The ARB is also developing an enforcement program to ensure compliance with the new regulations.

The Air Resources Board is a department of the California Environmental Protection Agency. ARB's mission is to promote and protect public health, welfare, and ecological resources through effective reduction of air pollutants while recognizing and considering effects on the economy. The ARB oversees all air pollution control efforts in California to attain and maintain health based air quality standards.

The California Air Resources Board www.arb.ca.gov
September 25, 2008
www.arb.ca.gov

Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jpolmod.2008.03.007

Abstract: This paper studies instrument choice under market-based regulations when governments expropriate private property in order to protect the environment. The analysis uses survey data collected for Bangkok's old motorcycle retirement program. While the literature studies only “Cash for Clunkers” schemes, this hypothetical experiment allows us to compare owners’ preferences for alternative schemes. Policy implications of the proposed schemes can be inferred after examining owners’ responses to different financial incentive provided by the government. Our analysis provides criteria that could be used when choosing one scheme over another.

Keywords: Air pollution; Pollution taxes/Subsidies; Vehicle retirement

by Akinori Tomohara 1 and Jian Xue 2
1. University of California at Los Angeles, 110 Westwood Plaza, Gold Hall Suite B302, Los Angeles, CA 90095, United States
2. Environment and Natural Resources, The World Bank, Washington, DC 20433, United States

Journal of Policy Modeling via Elsevier Science Direct www.ScienceDirect.com
Volume 31, Issue 1; January-February 2009; Pages 126-129

Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/26/business/worldbusiness/26fishing.html?th&emc=th

Tadatoshi Ikeuchi hunts for scallops, Pacific cod and kelp with the Shinei Maru No. 66. Its dashboard, with touch-screen controls, betrays its high-tech abilities. “It’s like a Prius for the sea,” he said.

Until very recently, commercial fishermen around the world have been laboring under the weight of high fuel prices. In Europe earlier this year, fishermen expressed their frustration by blockading ports to protest prices and taxes. In the United States, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, the former Republican vice presidential nominee, has called for low-interest loans to help Alaskan fishermen buy fuel-efficient engines.

Japan, meanwhile, is searching for high-tech solutions. In fact, the hybrid boat engine, which is still just a prototype, is part of a multimillion-dollar government-led effort to rescue Japan’s fishing industry from rising energy costs, which are likely to return to rise again once the global recession ends and demand comes back.

As part of the two-year-old program, the Japanese are also testing biofuel-powered marine engines, computer-engineered propeller designs and low-energy LED lights on squid boats, which use bright lights to lure their catch.

There is a vast international market for such solutions. Many Japanese boat engines that use computers to raise fuel efficiency are already popular among American fishermen....

Japan’s agriculture and fisheries ministry, which has led development of the new technologies, will subsidize their introduction as part of a $700 million aid package announced in July to help the fishing industry.

Modernization of this most ancient of professions seems the natural answer here to the commercial fishing crisis, which predates the run-up (and recent fall) in fuel prices....

The number of commercial fishermen has shrunk by 27 percent in the last decade, to 204,330 last year, hurt by declining birthrates and migration of young people to the cities according to the National Federation of Fisheries Cooperative Associations...

The federation warns that rising fuel costs could force an additional 25,000 to 45,000 fishermen to hang up their nets. Before the recent fall in prices, boat fuel, known as heavy fuel oil, was accounting for about 20 to 30 percent of a fisherman’s total costs in Japan, almost double its proportion three years ago.

They cannot pass the increase on to consumers in the form of higher seafood prices for fear of losing sales to cheaper imports from Asian competitors, like China and Vietnam.

They also worry that higher seafood prices would only worsen the shift in Japanese consumer tastes away from a traditional seafood-centered diet — a trend known as “sakana banare,” or flight from fish.
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American fishermen make similar complaints.... The average Japanese still eats about 94 grams (3.3 ounces) of fish a day, five times the amount consumed by the average American.
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The $700 million aid package ... promised to pay 90 percent of fuel price increases since December, but only to fishermen who found ways to reduce their consumption. The package also contained subsidies to help fishermen buy efficient new engines, like the hybrid.

A $250,000 subsidy from the agriculture ministry, for example, meant that Mr. Ikeuchi, the hybrid boat’s captain, paid only $650,000 for the trawler, the same price as a conventional boat.

Mr. Ikeuchi said his fuel use had dropped to about 75 gallons a day, cutting his daily bill by about $100.

The propulsion system switches between a 650-horsepower heavy oil motor, which powers the main engine, and a 150-horsepower heavy oil motor, which turns a generator that runs a smaller electric engine for use when the boat moves slowly.
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By Martin Fackler
FOR FULL STORY GO TO:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/26/business/worldbusiness/26fishing.html?th&emc=th
The New York Times www.NYTimes.com
Published: December 25, 2008