Cutting ozone will require radical transformation of California's trucking industry

[kscarbel2]

Los Angeles Times / November 5, 2015

At a laboratory in downtown Los Angeles, a big rig spins its wheels on massive rollers as a metal tube funnels its exhaust into an array of air quality sensors. Engineers track the roaring truck's emissions from a bank of computer screens.

The brand-new diesel truck is among the cleanest on the road, the engineers at the California Air Resources Board testing lab say. Even so, its 550-horsepower engine spews out more than 20 times the smog-forming nitrogen oxides of a typical gasoline-powered car — and that won't be good enough for the state to meet stricter federal smog limits adopted this month.

Cutting ozone, the lung-damaging gas in smog, to federal health standards while meeting state targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions will require a radical transformation of California's transportation sector over the next two decades, air quality officials and experts say.

Millions of new electric cars must replace gasoline-powered models. Buses will have to run on hydrogen fuel cells. New technologies and cleaner fuels need to proliferate quickly to slash pollution from trucks, cargo ships and trains.

"We have to go to zero tailpipe emissions," said Mark Z. Jacobson, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University. "There's really no other solution."

The changes will fall heavily on vehicles because they are the dominant source of air pollution in California. The largest reductions must come from the heavy-duty sector that transports goods through ports, freeways, rail yards and warehouses. The diesel-powered freight system emits 45% of the smog-forming pollution in the state and lags behind passenger vehicles, which have reduced tailpipe emissions dramatically over 50 years of smog-fighting regulations.

The transition is beginning with automobiles. A 2012 Air Resources Board mandate aims to put 1.4 million zero-emissions vehicles on the road by 2025 and requires them to account for one in seven new car sales by that year. In one scenario under consideration by the agency, the number of electric, plug-in hybrid and fuel-cell vehicles would increase to 5 million and 40% of new car sales by 2030.

About 160,000 zero-emissions vehicles are on the road today in California — just 0.5% of the passenger fleet.

To reach air quality and climate change targets, technology being pioneered in cars must eventually be scaled up to trucks and other heavy vehicles.

In July, Gov. Jerry Brown issued an executive order directing state agencies to establish "clear targets" to transition California's freight system to "zero-emission technologies."

That won't be easy, state regulators say. But one advantage for California is that it can lean on many of the same efforts needed to meet its goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions 40% below 1990 levels by 2030. Those carbon-cutting policies should simultaneously reduce levels of ozone, fine-particle pollution and cancer-causing diesel soot.

Some of those measures are outlined in a recent Air Resources Board report that projects California can reduce transportation-related pollution to meet air quality and climate change targets over the next 15 years with cleaner fuels, vehicles and energy sources. For heavy-duty vehicles, diesel engines will continue to dominate through 2030, the report says, but under even tougher emissions rules.

"While today's trucks are significantly cleaner than their predecessors, we'll need new engine standards that are about 90% cleaner," said Karen Magliano, chief of the air quality planning and science division at the Air Resources Board.

Chris Shimoda, policy director for the California Trucking Assn., acknowledged the industry "is way behind light-duty cars in terms of the introduction of zero-emissions technology."

That's in part because the because the state Air Resources Board has not yet adopted zero-emissions requirements for freight, Shimoda said. But heavy-duty trucks also face higher technological hurdles and "the engineering challenges of trying to get a battery-electric or hydrogen fuel cell truck that can haul 80,000 pounds across the country."

"It's going to take time to introduce that technology," Shimoda said.

A key driver of the changes is the nation's worst ozone pollution in Southern California, which can reach over 100 parts per billion in inland valleys. Ozone, linked to asthma, heart disease and premature deaths, is formed when pollution from motor vehicles, power plants and other combustion sources cooks in the heat and sunlight.

Though air quality has improved markedly in California, the smoggiest regions — the South Coast basin and the San Joaquin Valley — have so far failed to meet a series of federal ozone standards going back to 1979.

Regional air quality regulators say they must cut smog-forming nitrogen oxides at least 75% beyond existing regulations to meet a 2037 deadline to clean the air to the new federal ozone limit of 70 parts per billion.

Environmentalists say Southern California officials are not acting quickly enough.

The obstacles are so great that air regulators and transportation planners "have to get a lot more aggressive," said Adrian Martinez, an attorney for the environmental nonprofit Earthjustice.

Martinez wants to see zero-emissions lanes on freeways and electrified corridors for trucks hauling cargo in and out of the ports. "We need to get this stuff going now because these projects take decades," he said.

Barry Wallerstein, executive officer of the South Coast Air Quality Management District, is optimistic that the region can meet ozone standards through improvements in diesel engines and new technology, such as hybrid trucks powered by overhead catenary wires.

"We shouldn't underestimate ingenuity and ability to continue to further reduce emissions," Wallerstein said. When pressed on the Southland's failure to meet previous air quality standards, he said, "we need to pick up the pace."

Wringing enough pollution out of trucks and other cargo-moving vehicles to get Southern California's ozone levels down to 70 ppb will require a "paradigm shift" to battery-electric and fuel cell technology, said Scott Samuelsen, an engineering professor who directs the Advanced Power and Energy Program at UC Irvine. The key question, he said, "is how to make an economically viable transition of a freight industry that's evolved with diesel engines."

Some of those changes can be seen at the Port of Long Beach, where crews have finished building the first half of a $1.5-billion terminal that unloads, stacks and sorts shipping containers using electric cranes and driverless, battery-powered vehicles instead of diesel-burning yard tractors.

"We're looking to expand use of electricity," said Art Wong, a spokesman for the port. "This terminal is going to be the first."

Back in downtown L.A., where the California Air Resources Board (CARB) is testing heavy-duty trucks, lab manager Keshav Sahay put the difficult task ahead in simple terms: "We have to do more."

[41chevy]

Just curious, what is used make all the electricity needed? What percentage is "green" ? How much pollution is going to be created by the power generations systems?

[m16ty]

I take anything coming from "the land of fruits and nuts" as suspect.

Now smog is some nasty stuff but they are spinning their wheels trying to fight "greenhouse gases". Sure they can reduce the CO2 levels but it won't make a bit of difference to the environment because global warming is the biggest scam in modern times, dreamed up by Al Gore and the like.

Isn't it convenient they call it "carbon" instead of what it really is, carbon dioxide. This is done on purpose. They say "carbon" because they are trying to convey a image of what people think of when you mention carbon, a nasty black substance that gets all over everything. In all actuality what they call "carbon" is really carbon dioxide, a colorless odorless gas that is naturally expelled every time you exhale. They also don't tell you that CO2 only makes up 0.039% of they earth's atmosphere and all plants would die without it.

They are also getting away from the term "global warming" and favoring "climate change" instead. They are having to do this because the earth hasn't warmed any in the last few years, despite CO2 levels being the highest in recorded history. That way if it warms they can scream climate change, if it cools they can scream climate change, or any other weather condition you can think of.

I feel sorry for the good citizens of CA because the loons in that state are going to run it into the ground. I'd say they probably won't be happy until all their goods are delivered by horse and buggy but even then they will probably say the horses fart too much.

Edited November 6, 2015 by m16ty

[41chevy]

I see the Discovery Channel is going to air a new series called Count Down to Extinction funded by the EPA. Whoopee.

[kscarbel2]

As the planetary population has grown to massive levels, there inherently are a massive number of vehicles and industries spewing pollution into the air. There is a very real global pollution problem.

However having said that, I would be satisfied if every vehicle in the world today, actually and 100 percent of the time, met Euro-4 emissions (roughly EPA 2004), and all diesel fuel in the world didn't exceed 50 PPM sulfur content.

It's impossible to describe how dirty India and Pakistan are......most of the trucks are Euro-1 or Euro-2, not to mention buses and cars. Countries in the Middle East including Saudi Arabia, plus the Philippines, Indonesia and South Africa, are still Euro-2. Some countries are still Euro-1.

.

[TeamsterGrrrl]

I tend to agree- Euro4/EPA2004 was a good compromise that every manufacturer could actually meet... Note how many Manufacturers had to pull out of the market when EPA2007 and 2010 came into effect, and VW had to cheat to affordably meet the standards. Governments always need to recognize that air pollution is largely a local problem- For example, North Dakota has coal fired power plants and thousands of old diesel trucks and tractors, but due to the low concentration of these sources Fargo has the cleanest air in the nation. Meanwhile, with 20 million plus people jammed into the bowl that is southern California, after a half century of increasingly tighter emmission controls they still have air quality problems.