BILL ANALYSIS �
SENATE TRANSPORTATION & HOUSING COMMITTEE BILL NO: AB 1922
SENATOR MARK DESAULNIER, CHAIRMAN AUTHOR: Lara
VERSION: 5/2/12
Analysis by: Eric Thronson FISCAL: yes
Hearing date: June 19, 2012
SUBJECT:
Diesel vehicle emission inspections
DESCRIPTION:
This bill requires heavy-duty diesel truck fleets to complete
smoke opacity inspections and repairs on or before December 31st
for each calendar year.
ANALYSIS:
California Air Resources Board (ARB) regulations require owners
or operators of heavy-duty diesel motor vehicles to perform
regular self-inspections (smoke opacity tests) of their vehicles
to control excessive smoke emissions from heavy-duty diesel
trucks and buses. Specifically, the regulations require owners
of most California-based fleets to test each heavy-duty
diesel-powered vehicle annually with a smoke opacity meter and
to meet applicable standards based on the age of the vehicle's
engine. Further, owners must promptly repair any vehicle the
test determines to be in noncompliance and bring it into
compliance. For each vehicle, owners must repeat this test and
conduct any potential repairs within 12 months of the prior
test. Finally, owners must maintain records involving each
vehicle of the initial opacity test, repair information,
post-repair opacity results, and meter calibration for at least
two years.
Existing law confers authority to ARB to audit the inspection
records of all heavy-duty diesel-powered vehicles at the
owner/operator designated fleet location and to test vehicles
for compliance with the smoke opacity regulations.
This bill requires heavy-duty diesel truck fleets to complete
its required smoke opacity inspections and any necessary repairs
on or before December 31st for each calendar year.
AB 1922 (LARA) Page 2
COMMENTS:
1.Purpose . According to the author, this bill provides fleet
owners of heavy duty vehicles with a streamlined maintenance
process. The author contends this bill allows fleet owners to
plan and take advantage of a more consistent maintenance
schedule. In addition, fleet owners with multiple terminals
will be able to test all trucks operating from that terminal
at once rather than move equipment back and forth as they
currently do. According to the sponsor, this bill allows
motor carriers a reasonable amount of flexibility to plan for
testing of trucks that may be spread out over a wide
geographic area or be based at a number of different
locations.
2.Is this bill necessary ? As mentioned earlier, existing law
requires owners of heavy duty vehicles to conduct periodic
smoke inspections within 12 months of the prior test. The
author suggests that current law creates inefficiencies in
fleet maintenance calendars because every vehicle may have a
different annual testing due date. These varied due dates can
create logistical and administrative problems for fleet
operators and may lead to unnecessary penalties. There is
nothing in current law, however, prohibiting a fleet manager
or operator from aligning the testing dates of all his or her
vehicles on any day of the year. Therefore, this bill is not
necessary to resolve the problems identified by the author.
Instead, this bill sets an arbitrary test and repair deadline
for every fleet operator in the state. It appears the only
consequence of this bill is that every heavy-duty vehicle will
not need to be retested in 2013 until December 31, regardless
of when it was last tested in 2012.
3.Double-referral . The Rules Committee has referred this bill
to both this committee and the Environmental Quality
Committee. Therefore, if this bill passes this committee, it
will be referred to the Committee on Environmental Quality.
Assembly Votes:
Floor: 77 - 0
Appr: 17 - 0
Trans: 11 - 0
POSITIONS: (Communicated to the Committee before noon on
Wednesday,
June 13, 2012)
AB 1922 (LARA) Page 3
SUPPORT: California Trucking Association (sponsor)
California Construction Trucking Association
California Tow Truck Association
OPPOSED: None received.