We wrote last year about the tremendous pollution emitted by construction equipment.

The problem seems to be that until 1996, there were no standards for emissions by construction equipment, and when they went into effect that year, the standards only covered new equipment. So there’re 250,000 old, dirty machines at work in the state, some of which create as much pollution in an hour as a semi truck would in 1100 miles of driving. So before lunch, these machines have cranked out more pollution than a truck driving all the way across the US.

The machines crank out nitrogen oxides, which are the main component of smog, which is bad enough. Even worse, though, is that they emit a huge amount of particulate matter (PM), better known as soot. The PM, which consists of tiny particles, gets stuck in your lungs, and in the words of one reviewer of the study, is “like tiny razorblades”. It caused 30,000 asthma attacks in 2005, and caused over 300,000 school absences. In many parts of the state, kids are more likely to carry asthma inhalers than pencils to school.

Well there is a proposal for new standards up before the California Air Resource Board (CARB), and it may not surprise you that construction companies are pushing back. Apparently, the federal government has gotten around to requiring new construction equipment to run more cleanly. California, in an effort to remedy the mistakes of their own earlier legislation, has taken the opportunity to require all the existing machinery to be retrofitted for cleanliness by 2020. Somehow, 13 years is not enough to plan for this.

The decision is being touted as the first big test of Mary Nichols, Schwarzenegger’s new CARB head.