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Air regulators say foreign commercial trucks will soon have to meet US pollution standards

SACRAMENTO - 02/04/06 - Foreign commercial trucks operating in California will soon have to meet US air pollution control standards, according to a mandate issued earlier this week by the California Air Resources Board (CARB).

According to the agency, at least 4,000 trucks - most from Mexico - travel along the state's expansive highway network on any given day in direct violation of federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) emission controls.

A California state law drafted in 2004 required truck operators to carry proof that they meet federal standards, but until now inspectors haven't been able to enforce it, said a CARB spokesman.

"Our truck inspection teams will have one more thing to do when they stop a truck. The teams already check to make sure trucks are burning diesel fuel certified for use in California and check the engine and other equipment," he said.

"Now they will also look for a seal under the hood that the truck is being built to US standards," the CARB spokesman said, adding that virtually all Canadian-registered trucks traveling on California highways are already built to US EPA emission standards.

Only trucks belching heavy diesel smoke are generally stopped at border agriculture check stations or California Highway Patrol "weigh stations," he said.
 
The inspection teams use an electronic monitor to see if the smoke exceeds California emissions standards. If it does, the teams search for the cause, including whether the truck meets federal pollution standards.

According to press reports, a violation for driving a sub-standard truck brings the same penalty as failing the smoke test - an $800 fine for the first offense and $1,800 for a second. A third offense would require the owner of the cargo being hauled must use a different vehicle to deliver its goods.

"Companies sending goods to California, we want them to use trucks built to U.S. standards," the spokesman said. "We think it would be relatively easy to enforce, since we already inspect them at the border."

The regulation must be approved by the California Administrative Law Office, which likely means a delay of as long as a year before it can be enforced.

The debate over the use of Mexican trucks on US highways culminated in 2004 with a US Supreme Court decision supporting the Bush Administration's decision to let trucks into the US past what had been a 20-mile commercial border zone.

The high court rejected the argument that Mexican trucks tend to be older and dirtier than American models and that the government first needed to complete an air quality study before opening interior US highways to their use.

The use of Mexican trucks on California's highways has also raised the ire of many domestic motor carriers who claim that truck operators from south of the border undercut competition by paying their drivers just half of the $18 to $20 US drivers receive.

In addition, they say, Mexican operators are virtually exempt from having to pay the highway taxes, workers' compensation costs, and permit and license fees that drive up the cost of doing business in the US.

Mexican truckers are currently allowed to haul cargo across the border to a destination in the US, pick up cargo there and haul it back to Mexico.

At the same time, however, Mexican truckers are not allowed to pick up cargo in the US and deliver it to another point in the US.
 
But, say sources, a loophole in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) permits Mexican truckers to haul cargo considered to be "foreign commerce"  - in effect, essentially anything imported through the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, for example - to any destination in the US.

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