Senate attacks California and Lawnmowers

[Timber Loftis]

Does the Republican Congress support state's rights? No. Does the Republican Congress support a dirty environment? Yes. Is the Republican Congress in the palms of big business? Pues, claro que si. And to put it in a must-pass appropriations bill. [img]graemlins/dontknowaboutyou.gif[/img] Note that Briggs & Stratton represented one thing to the SEC (the CA law will not hurt its business) and another to the Senate (the CA law will cost it a lot of money). What, if anything, have we learned since Enron? Nothing to see here. Move along.
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Today's BNA Reporter

Air Pollution
California Board Rejects Senate Language
To Restrict State Regulation of Lawn Mowers


LOS ANGELES--Language added to a federal spending bill (S. 1584) the Senate Appropriations Committee approved earlier this month to block strict emissions standards California has proposed for lawn mowers and other garden equipment would cripple states' efforts to reduce air pollution, according to the California Air Resources Board.
After analyzing the amendment advanced by Sen. Christopher Bond (R-Mo.), the board concluded the measure would not only negate whatever rules the agency adopts for small off-road engines, it would strip California and other states of their authority to regulate a variety of nonroad engines (172 DEN A-5, 09/5/03 ).

"The amendment also would make existing state nonroad engine requirements unenforceable," CARB spokesman Jerry Martin told BNA Sept. 17. "This would devastate our retrofit programs for existing diesel engines."

Section 209 of the Clean Air Act prohibits any state from establishing standards for new engines used in farm and construction equipment smaller than 175 horsepower. The statute, however, allows California and other states to adopt standards for all other new and used nonroad engines.

Bond's amendment would revise Section 209 to prevent any state standards for "any engine covered by a certificate of conformity that also covers any engine used in farm or construction equipment less than 175 horsepower."

Put more simply, the amendment would preempt the states' authority to set emission standards for any engine that belongs to an engine family the Environmental Protection Agency has certified for sale in the United States if one or more of the engines are used in farm and construction equipment.

Engines EPA certifies for farm and construction use also can be used to power lawn and garden equipment, portable generators, forklifts, airport service equipment, mining equipment, and some marine motors, CARB explained in documents outlining the potential effects of the appropriations bill.

The states would be barred from setting emissions standards for all nonroad engines less than 175 horsepower, and in some cases above 175 horsepower, CARB's Martin said.

Gasoline and diesel-fueled engines under 175 horsepower emit 490 tons of ozone-forming pollutants daily in California, according to CARB. It said the diesel engines also produce 24 tons a day of particulates, which have been linked to respiratory ailments, cancer, and other health problems.

Bond added the amendment at the urging of Briggs & Stratton, the nation's largest manufacturer of lawn and garden equipment. The company has two plants in Missouri, in Poplar Bluff and Rolla.


Briggs & Stratton Statement

Briggs & Stratton, which is based in Wauwatosa, Wisc., told Bond and other members of the Senate that the regulations CARB is set to consider at a Sept. 25 public hearing would require a retooling of its facilities so costly the firm would have to relocate its operations overseas.
The company released Sept. 16 the results of a National Economic Research Associates analysis that found California's "extreme" proposal could cost 22,000 manufacturing jobs in 24 states.

Briggs & Stratton said it is committed to making its products cleaner, but insisted the California proposal is "unreasonable."

"California is attempting to impose unreasonable standards that force us to consider moving operations overseas, and this would have a tremendous impact not only on our workers but on our suppliers and customers," Thomas R. Savage, a Briggs & Stratton senior vice president, said Sept. 16.

"It is not a question of environmental protection, it's about one state agency overstepping the bounds of reasonable regulation to the detriment of the entire country," Savage said.

"[W]e're asking members of Congress, especially from America's heartland, to support responsible legislation that would promote a uniform national emissions standard set by EPA," Savage said. "A patchwork of state laws would make large-scale engine manufacturing nearly impossible."


Senator Rejects Company's Position

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and the Clean Air Trust challenged the company's claims that new emission standards carry a heavy economic burden.
The argument contradicts statements Briggs & Stratton made in a recent Securities and Exchange Commission filing, Feinstein and Frank O'Donnell, executive director of Clean Air Trust, said in separate statements calling for an SEC investigation.

In an annual report filed with the SEC Sept. 11, the company said it "does not believe the CARB staff proposal will have a material effect on its financial condition or results of operations, given that California represents a relatively small percentage of Briggs & Stratton's engine sales and that increased costs will be passed on to California consumers."

Corporations are required to file 10-K forms

"Today, lawn mower maker Briggs & Stratton issued a press release stating that it could lose 22,000 jobs in 24 states' from regulations being considered by the California Air Resources Board that would impose additional air quality standards on small, off-road engines of 25 horsepower less," Feinstein said in a Sept. 16 statement. "Yet less than a week ago, the company said those same regulations would not have a material effect on its operations."

"It is clear to me that the company is either misleading its shareholders and the SEC, or it is misleading the members of the United States Senate," Feinstein said.

The company "apparently is continuing the big lie in order to bamboozle Congress into gutting the clean air requirements," O'Donnell said Sept. 16. "Either that, or it is already planning to move jobs overseas, and preparing to use clean air as a scapegoat. If that is the case, it would appear as if the company made a false statement to the SEC."

Feinstein, who tried to block the Bond amendment, said the strict emissions requirements for small engines are needed to help California meet federal clean air standards.


California's Proposed Standard

CARB's proposed standards would cut ozone-forming exhaust and evaporative emissions from new off-road spark-engines that are smaller than 25 horsepower in half by 2010, a level which the board says is equivalent to taking one million cars of the road. It said these engines generate more than 100 tons of ozone-forming pollutants daily in California.
According to the draft rule, the new exhaust standards would be phased in between 2005 and 2008.

To comply with the rules, manufacturers would have to install small catalytic converters inside mufflers, CARB said. These devices have been used on small engines in Europe for nearly 10 years, according to CARB. The engine assembly process would not change; the company would install a catalytic muffler instead of a regular muffler, CARB said.

The proposed evaporative emission standards would require leak-proof gas tanks on equipment made for the 2007 model year, and tanks would be required to have an automatic valve to close off the tank when not in use.

CARB estimates that by 2010, the new standards would reduce nitrogen oxides emissions statewide by 3.2 tons a day and cut hydrocarbon emissions by 18.5 tons a day. The nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbon reductions would increase to 7.5 tons per day and 43.0 tons per day, respectively in 2020.

The South Coast air basin, which includes Los Angeles, would realize a combined nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbon reduction of 9 tons a day, according to CARB.

Briggs & Stratton said it has floated an alternative proposal to CARB, which would eliminate an equivalent level of emissions.

Martin said board's staff is still reviewing the proposal.

CARB estimated that the new rules, when fully implemented, would increase the cost of a typical lawn mower by $45.

The Bond amendment to the appropriations bill is not about unreasonable requirements to clean up lawn equipment or losing jobs, CARB said. "It's about taking away states' rights, crippling state efforts to reduce air pollution, and harming the health of Americans," the agency said in documents.

More information on the California Air Resources Board's proposal for small offroad exhaust and evaporative emissions control regulations is available at http://www.arb.ca.gov/regact/sore03/sore03.htm on the World Wide Web.

By Carolyn Whetzel

Copyright © 2003 by The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc., Washington D.C.

[Rokenn]

The only time the repugs favor state rights is when it benefits their corporate cronies.