OOU sends letter to 'The Dickinson Press'

[dan Little]

Heres the letter that was sent.
-------------------------------------

The story your paper ran on the Mexican truck issue does not tell the facts on both sides.

First if you will check with FMCSA you will find page after page of mexican trucking co's that are banned from operating within the US for failure to pay fines, for safety , speeding, log book's, ect.

second your report does not say anything about the high sulfur fuel these mexican trucks run, ie., clean air act.

See goverment report below, and this report takes into account trucks as new as 2007.

Nor does your report say anything about the damage these added trucks will do to our highways without paying any 2290 tax.

NAFTA/Mexican Truck Emissions Overview 1NAFTA/MEXICAN TRUCK EMISSIONS OVERVIEW(11/12/04 Rev. 01/21/05)BackgroundThe North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) started in June of 1990when then Mexico President Carlos Salinas de Gortari and U.S. PresidentGeorge Bush announced their intention to negotiate a free trade agreement.Three years later, after considerable political debate, the U.S. Congress ratified itby a vote of 234-201 in the House and 61 to 38 in the Senate in November of1993. The implementing legislation then went to President Clinton for hissignature and on January 1, 1994 NAFTA went into effect.Years of legal controversy followed over numerous NAFTA issues, especiallyenvironmental issues, and on June 7, 2004 the U.S. Supreme Court issued adecision (541U.S. ____2004, No. 03-358) overturning a previous 9thCircuit Courtof Appeals decision which had directed the U.S. Department of Transportation,Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) to conduct a fullenvironmental impact study as required under the National Environmental PolicyAct and a full State Implementation Plan (SIP) conformity determination asrequired under the Federal Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990. Pending thecompletion of these studies, a moratorium remained in effect limiting Mexicantruck travel into the U.S. to the “20 mile commercial zone”.The implementation of the transportation provisions of NAFTA is now imminentas the FMCSA prepares to lift the travel moratorium. Commercial vehicles(trucks and buses) from Mexico and the U.S. will be allowed to travel freely ineach other’s country once these provisions are implemented. Currently, thesevehicles are limited to travel into each other’s country to a 20 mile commercialzone.The following bullets discuss the anticipated emissions and air quality impacts ofthe increased Mexican commercial vehicle travel into the U.S. and specificallyCalifornia. It is important to note that these impacts are from various studiesand many assumptions underlie them. Actual emissions and air qualityimpacts will be determined once NAFTA is fully implemented.Additionally, this paper discusses recently introduced federal legislation andenacted state legislation, planned mitigation strategies and contact information.Increased Truck Crossings Into the U.S.• Approximately 30,000 additional truck crossings per day into the fourBorder States: Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California based onprojections from current border crossing activity and surveys of Mexican
——————————————————————————–
Page 2
NAFTA/Mexican Truck Emissions Overview 2fleets. The largest border crossing is Ciudad Juarez-El Paso followed byTijuana-Otay Mesa (San Diego).• Currently, 3500 trucks cross into California each day (approximately 3000at Otay Mesa and 500 at Calexico/Mexicali). These trucks are limited totravel in a 20 mile commercial zone. These crossings may increase 2 to 5times to 7,000 to 17,500 per day.• Additionally, increased crossings at the California/Arizona border onInterstate 8 are anticipated as Mexican trucks from the Nogales regionand beyond plus trucks from Texas and New Mexico come west to use thePort of Los Angeles. Baja California does not have a comparable largeshipping port. In anticipation of this increased traffic, and increasedshipping demand from the Asian market, the Port of Los Angeles isundergoing significant expansion and will double its capacity in the next 2to 5 years. It is already the second largest and busiest port in the U.S.The surrounding freeways that service this port (Interstate 110 andInterstate 710) are already severely impacted by truck traffic.Mexican Truck Fleet Profile/Emissions Standards• 66% of the Mexican truck fleet is 1993 model year and older (1993 waswhen the diesel engine fleet was close to 100% electronic conversion,which means that engines built in 1993 and later typically use electronicfuel injection and computer controls to reduce emissions, improveperformance and fuel economy).• 25% of the Mexican truck fleet is pre 1980 model year (these engines emitvery high levels of Nitrogen Oxide (NOx) and Particulate Matter (PM)emissions on average.• Mexican diesel engine emission standards were aligned with the USEPAstandards for the 1994 to 2003 model years (see Attachment A). Mexicohas not revised its emission standards to reflect recent U.S. standardswhich require a 50% reduction in NOx for 2004-2007 engines and a 90%reduction in NOx and PM for 2007 and subsequent model year engines.The 2007 engine standards also require the use of ultra low sulfur dieselfuel (15 parts per million (ppm) sulfur), which is not yet required in Mexico.* Mexico: On-road vehicle and engines emission standardshttp://www.dieselnet.com/standards/mx/index.html*
——————————————————————————–
Page 3
NAFTA/Mexican Truck Emissions Overview 3Truck Emission Factors US/Canada v. Mexican (grams per mile)*YearNOx g/mile DeltaPM g/mileDeltaMode**1999 US/C 12.8————0.75———-Highway1999 MX19.3+6.5 (51%)1.13+.38 (51%)Highway2010 US/C 1.38————-0.051———–Highway2010 MX4.73+3.35(243%)0.262+.211(414%)HighwayThese are fleet average emission rates and the 2010 year figures reflect the2007 USEPA emissions standards discussed above. Canadian engineemissions standards are aligned with the USEPA engine emission standards.* North American Trade and Transportation Corridors: Environmental Impactsand Mitigation Strategies, Final Report – Prepared for the North AmericanCommission for Environmental Cooperation by ICF Consulting, August 2001.www.cec.org**Idling emission factors are listed in Attachment B.California Air Quality Impacts• Various studies has modeled the air quality impacts of the increasedMexican truck travel into California under NAFTA and the worst casescenario is 50 additional tons per day of NOx and 2.5 tons per day of PMin the South Coast Air Basin alone. (See Sierra Research Report No.SR02-04-01: Critical Review of “Safety Oversight for Mexico-DomiciledCommercial Motor Carriers, Final Programmatic EnvironmentalAssessment,” Prepared by John A. Volpe Transportation Systems Center,January 2002).NAFTA Mexican Truck Emissions Mitigation Strategies• S. 2842 (Boxer/Feinstein/Jeffords) was introduced on September 23,2004. This bill would amend title 49 of the United States Code to requiremotor carriers (truckers) to comply with vehicle emission performancestandards established by the USEPA and for other purposes. This bill iscited as “The Clean Trucks Act of 2004”. This bill would require theFMCSA (and likely the U.S. Customs Service) to withhold access of anyMexican heavy duty diesel powered vehicles unless it meets USEPAemissions standards for the year model of the vehicle’s engine. Recallthat USEPA and Mexican heavy duty diesel engine emissions standardswere only aligned for the 1994 to 2003 model years. If this bill wasenacted into law, new Mexican trucks would not be allowed into the U.S.
——————————————————————————–
Page 4
NAFTA/Mexican Truck Emissions Overview 4This bill was referred to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Scienceand Transportation and is pending action by this committee.• H.R. 5314 (Filner/Millender-McDonald, Carson and Sandlin) wasintroduced on October 8, 2004 and is the House version of S. 2842.• AB 1009 (Pavley) was signed into law by the Governor on September 29,2004 as urgency legislation (Chapter 873, Statutes of 2004). This billamends Health and Safety Code section 43701 and requires the ARB, inconsultation with the CHP, to adopt regulations by January 1, 2006, to theextent permissible under federal law (emphasis added), which wouldrequire all commercial motor trucks over 10,000 pounds gross vehicleweight entering California to possess evidence that its engine met thefederal (USEPA) emissions standards for that model year. ARB staff isbeginning to develop these regulations.Other Planned or Possible Mitigation Strategies• Expand the Tijuana Inspection and Maintenance ( I/M ) Project to cover allvehicles and expand this pilot program to all urban areas in Baja California(Ensenada, Mexicali, etc.)• Expand the California Council on Diesel Education and TechnologyProgram (CCDET) training program for the Society of AutomotiveEngineers (SAE) J1667 heavy duty diesel engines smoke emissions testprocedure and heavy-duty diesel engine repair at sites along the borderand in Baja California.• Continued aggressive enforcement of the Heavy Duty Vehicle InspectionProgram (HDVIP) along the border region and at the Port of LosAngeles/Long Beach. Trucks in these regions typically have failure ratesfor excessive smoke emissions and/or tampering at approximately twotimes the statewide average rate (approximately 12% v. approximately6%). The ARB has conducted enforcement at these sites on anintermittent basis since the implementation of the HDVIP in November1991 and full time at the Mexican border crossings since 1999 as a resultof SB 270 (Peace) of 1998.• Continued aggressive collections (under Vehicle Code section 27159) ofdelinquent HDVIP citations at the Mexican border and statewide.
——————————————————————————–
Page 5
NAFTA/Mexican Truck Emissions Overview 5Contact Information:Paul E. Jacobs, ChiefMobile Source EnforcementCal/EPA—Air Resources BoardP.O. Box 2815Sacramento, CA [e-mail]/enf.enf.htmDarryl P. Gaslan, ManagerHeavy Duty Diesel Enforcement SectionCal/EPA—Air Resources Board9528 Telstar Ave.El Monte, CA [e-mail]/enf.enf.htmDonald J. Chernich, ManagerHeavy Duty Diesel I/M Development SectionCal/EPA—Air Resources BoardP.O. Box 2815Sacramento, CA


Thank You
Dan Little
Pres. Owner-Operators United Inc
America's Fastest Growing Drivers Assoc.
www.owneroperatorsunited.org