The California Air Resources Board (CARB) has asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to approve the state's recently adopted off-road engine emission standards that will force construction companies in California to retrofit or replace almost all of their heavy construction equipment.  EPA must review and approve California's standards before the state can legally enforce them; a Clean Air Act process called "granting a waiver of federal preemption."  If EPA grants the state's waiver request, other states would be free to adopt California's new rules, which apply to all off-road diesel fleets currently in use.

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On Dec. 15, AGC of America and its two California chapters formally petitioned the state of California to reconsider or repeal a new rule that would force construction companies across the state to retrofit or replace almost all of their heavy construction equipment.  California's new standards are enormously complex and certain to cost California's contractors billions of dollars.

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On December 9-10, ten members of the AGC Environmental Network Steering Committee and national AGC environmental staff met with senior staff from several U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) program offices, including Solid Waste and Emergency Response, Policy, Economics and Innovation, Water, Air and Radiation, and the EPA Green Building Workgroup.

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