Post by manchu29inf on Jul 31, 2013 23:52:26 GMT -5
SACRAMENTO — The California Air Resources Board Thursday moved to tighten pollution controls on most new off-road vehicles even while they sit idle in the garage.
The regulation will start with 2018 models and is to be phased in over four years, potentially costing buyers 4 percent to 9 percent more. Existing vehicles are exempt.
San Diego County Supervisor Ron Roberts, who also sits on the state air board, voted to support the regulation. It passed unanimously.
The rule attacks vapor emissions from gas lines and fuel tanks rather than tailpipes, which are already regulated.
There were 850,000 off-highway recreational vehicles registered in California, including nearly 79,000 in San Diego County, according to a Department of Motor Vehicles tally at the end of 2012.
Regulators say stricter controls are needed as they struggle to comply with federal clean-air standards, particularly in Southern California and the San Joaquin Valley. The new controls will reduce harmful evaporative emissions from new vehicles by 70 percent when compared to the current models, they say.
But off-road enthusiasts like Bob Ham of Calexico worry that the cost of compliance — estimated at $216 to $465 depending on the vehicle by 2018 — will scare buyers away just as the market rebounds.
“This will put pressure on dealers already struggling to stay in business,” Ham said in a phone interview. He and others say the board should have delayed implementation until model year 2020 to give manufacturers time to offer cost-effective emission controls.
Regulators say sales have perked up, and that a 2018 launch allows the industry to prepare given its usual 18-month lead time for research and development before introducing new models. Delays also would add more emissions into the atmosphere for another two years.
In 2012, California dealers sold a combined 14,012 ATVs and motorcycles — the two most popular off-road vehicles. In 2011, those sales amounted to just 10,572, according to DMV figures.
The regulation is aimed at evaporative emissions that escape from the fuel lines and gas tanks, whether the vehicle is being ridden at Ocotillo Wells or parked for the workweek. Fifty-nine percent of the evaporative emissions occur when the vehicle is parked, compared to 29 percent that come from the tailpipe, regulators say.
Under the rule, manufacturers will most likely have to use newer materials to prevent permeation from fuel lines and gas tanks. There are also carbon canisters that can trap particles before escaping into the atmosphere — a technology used in cars for some time. Another tool is the pressure relief valve on the gas tank vent that can hold in vapors. Anti-tipping technology to prevent spills also must be added to the vehicles.
Evaporative emissions are “reactive organic gases,” one of which is benzene that can be traced to an increase risk of cancer and neurological damage. Off-road vehicles account for nearly three-quarters of those gases,
Under the regulation, a newly bought off-road motorcycle, for example, could produce no more than 1 gram of these reactive organic gases per day starting in 2018. Currently, 10 to 15 grams escape from off-road motorcycles. In contrast, the average new car in 2018 will be responsible for just one-third of a gram.
Affected vehicles include dirt bikes, ATVs, off-road utility vehicles and sand cars, among others. Professional racing motorcycles, snowmobiles, gas-fueled golf carts and go-karts are exempt.