D.C. Council Weighs Ban on New Diesel Vehicles

This story appears in the Dec. 16 print edition of Transport Topics.

The District of Columbia City Council is considering legislation to ban the registration of new vehicles that operate “exclusively on the combustion of petroleum diesel fuel.”

The legislation, scheduled to take effect in 2018, is primarily intended to encourage motor carriers to convert their fleets to alternative fuels, according to Washington,D.C., officials.

But some trucking industry advocates, including American Trucking Associations and four other trade groups, warned in a letter to the council that the registration requirement, as written, would effectively ban new diesel trucks from operating in the District and would have “significantly harmful effects on the District’s economy and on the quality of life of District residents.”

“That wasn’t the intent, and we don’t think will be the effect of the legislation,” Karim Marshall, legislative director for the D.C. Department of the Environment, said last week.

Marshall said that the industry has “misinterpreted” the proposal — the Sustainable D.C. Omnibus Act of 2013 — which requires that diesel trucks be only “technologically capable” of burning an alternative fuel, such as biodiesel.

“We actually aren’t requiring the private sector to use any particular biodiesel blend,” Marshall said. “We’re just trying to make sure that any newly purchased vehicles are capable of running on biodiesel.”

Diesel vehicles, in general, are capable of being powered by biodiesel, but Bob Pitcher, ATA’s vice president of state laws, said the legislation says something different.

“If [it’s] enacted as written, there will be serious disruptions to the supply chain for D.C., which receives the vast majority of its goods via truck,” Pitcher said.

The warning letter emphasized that federal law provides that all states and the District of Columbia must provide access to large commercial vehicles from the Interstate Highway System to conduct business at terminals, points of pickup and delivery, and places of rest, food, repairs and refueling.

Marshall said that the District would not ban any truck from traveling through the city. “We wouldn’t interfere with interstate commerce like that,” he said.

He added that, to encourage the use of alternative fuels, the bill also would allow the District to grant partial tax rebates for vehicles powered by natural gas, propane or electricity.

Thomas James, president of the Truck Renting and Leasing Association, one of the signers of the ATA letter, said the proposal rejects new diesel trucks operating in the District without being registered there.

“There may be a lack of understanding about how clean new diesel vehicles are,” James said. “Our members are very invested in alternative-fuel vehicles, but I think it’s one of those issues that would be better driven by the market than by legislative mandate.”

Under the International Registration Plan, an interstate compact recognized by Congress, a truck weighing more than 26,000 pounds cannot travel into a jurisdiction without being registered in that jurisdiction, said Joe Sculley, the group’s director of government relations.

“What this bill is effectively saying is that, effective Jan. 1, 2018, unless your vehicle was previously registered in D.C., it would bar you from operating in D.C.,” Sculley said. “It would be restricting the newer diesel-powered vehicles from operating in D.C.”

“Banning diesel trucks after 2017 potentially causes major operational issues for household goods movers,” said Paul Oakley, executive vice president of the American Moving and Storage Association.

Oakley, who also signed on to the ATA letter, added that moving trucks are basically diesel and the transition to natural-gas trucks isn’t likely to be accomplished in that timeframe.

“If we have to offload moving vans into smaller gasoline-powered straight trucks, it’s going to increase our charges to our customers and it’s going to be problematic to get moves made efficiently,” he said.

Virginia Trucking Association and the Maryland Motor Truck Association also signed on to the letter.

The District’s legislation will be the subject of a public hearing Jan. 8.

Glen Kedzie, energy and environmental affairs counsel for ATA, said he and several other attorneys have analyzed the bill and believe they did not misinterpret its language.

“We had plenty of people review the language, and each of us independently came up with the same interpretation,” Kedzie said. “They need to tighten up the language. Their intent was not conveyed in the language that was presented to the public to review.”

He said that some manufacturers may not honor a warranty if a biodiesel blend used in a diesel engine exceeds 5%, and he questioned the logic of the proposal.

“If [the vehicles] only need to be ‘capable,’ what’s the reason for the legislation?” Kedzie asked.

But Marshall said the bill’s language does not need to be changed.