SCAQMD delays its low sulfur diesel rule

18 September 2000

The South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD), a Southern California (including Los Angeles) clean air authority, delayed its proposed Rule 431.2, which in its original language would establish a 15 ppm sulfur diesel cap effective 1 June 2004. Under the pressure from California truckers and trucking industry, the SCAQMD Governing Board voted unanimously 9:0 to delay the ultra low sulfur fuel requirement and, quite likely, to harmonize it with the proposed federal regulations.

In the adopted modified regulation, the measure will take effect 1 January 2005. However, if the California Air Resources Board (ARB) adopts an equivalent standard for diesel fuel statewide before 2005, the SCAQMD’s rule will take effect on the same date as the state measure, but no later than 1 June 2006.

The California ARB has been discussing developing a fuel rule to take effect sometime in the 2005-06 timeframe. The proposed federal EPA 15 ppm sulfur cap, as drafted, would take effect 1 June 2006.

SCAQMD’s economic analysis projects the rule will increase the cost of diesel fuel in the region between two and five cents a gallon.

Source: SCAQMD