South Coast Air Quality Management District: fleets.

Existing law authorizes the governing board of the South Coast Air Quality Management District to adopt rules and regulations that require specified operators of public and commercial fleet vehicles consisting of 15 or more vehicles, when adding vehicles or replacing vehicles in an existing fleet or forming a new fleet, to purchase vehicles that are capable of operating on methanol or other equivalently clean-burning alternative fuel and that require these vehicles to be operated, to the maximum extent feasible, on the alternative fuel when operating in the south coast district. This bill instead would authorize the governing board of the south coast district to adopt rules and regulations that require specified operators of public and commercial fleet vehicles consisting of 15 or more vehicles to purchase the cleanest commercially available vehicles, as defined, that will meet the operator's operational needs; to require the replacement of no more than 15% of existing vehicles per calendar year, as specified; and to require those cleanest commercially available vehicles to be operated, to the maximum extent feasible, in the south coast district. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the south coast district.