Heavy-duty vehicles: particulate matter and nitrous oxides.

(1) Existing law generally designates the State Air Resources Board as the state agency with the primary responsibility for the control of vehicular air pollution. The state board is required to adopt regulations to require that owners or operators of heavy-duty diesel motor vehicles perform regular inspections of their vehicles for excessive emissions of smoke, and regulations to require the utilization of emission control equipment. This bill would impose a specified compliance schedule on any regulation adopted by the state board after December 11, 2008, that imposes Best Available Control Technology (BACT) requirements on heavy-duty diesel-fueled vehicles for particulate matter (PM) emissions and nitrous oxides (NOx) emissions. (2) The California Constitution authorizes the Governor to declare a fiscal emergency and to call the Legislature into special session for that purpose. The Governor issued a proclamation declaring a fiscal emergency, and calling a special session for this purpose, on January 8, 2010. This bill would state that it addresses the fiscal emergency declared by the Governor by proclamation issued on January 8, 2010, pursuant to the California Constitution. (3) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.