The California Air Resources Board has received an extra $48 million to help low-income truckers comply with emission regulations, thanks to the governor's revised May budget.


The funds from AB118 will combine with previously allocated Proposition 1B funding to help truckers pay for the engine retrofits and replacements that will be required beginning in 2010. CARB will work with the state Treasurer's Office to use the 118 funds to facilitate low-interest loans to help truckers install soot filtration devices or completely replace older, dirtier engines.

Funds will also be used to help truckers add devices such as side skirts and wide-base tires that reduce aerodynamic drag and rolling resistance of trailers, which save fuel and thus lessen greenhouse gas emissions.

CARB's draft regulation is projected to cost the trucking industry $3.6 billion to $5.5 billion from 2010 to 2021.

Staff re-worked an earlier version of the draft regulation to eliminate the need for truckers to replace trucks twice, instead relying more heavily on retrofits for the first two years of the regulation. The proposed regulation now calls for truckers to retrofit pre-2007 model year trucks with soot filters and then requires a gradual modernization of trucks beginning in 2012, so that ultimately all trucks are the cleanest, 2010 or newer models.