California Clean Air Plan Calls for Further NOx, PM Reductions

May 20, 2016
By Deborah Lockridge

As part of a broad-reaching clean air program, California has proposed a low-NOx engine standard for heavy trucks. Another part of its plan is to push the Environmental Protection Agency for a nationwide low-NOx engine standard. But truck and engine makers have said in the past that striving for low NOx in diesels could conflict with federal efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by increasing fuel economy.

The California Air Resources Board’s Proposed 2016 State Strategy for the State Implementation Plan (State SIP Strategy) released this week describes proposed measures needed to meet federal ozone and PM2.5 standards over the next 15 years.

Among its proposed measures is a Low-NOx Engine Standard to be developed between 2017 and 2019 with implementation starting in 2023. The goal, it said, is to introduce near-zero-emission engine technologies to lower oxides of nitrogen (NOx) emissions from on-road heavy-duty vehicles.