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Christian Masset, Chairman of CTA, Bloomberg – 12 Dec 2008
Chairman of CTA, Christian Masset, was interviewed on 12 Dec 08 and broadcast in Bloomberg. He talked about the actions Government should take to clear the air in Hong Kong, even in the situation of recent economic crisis.
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=53691208472&oid=18005249752
BY JAKE HENSHAW, Sacramento Bureau – December 11, 2008
In the next two days, state regulators will consider giving big truckers new marching orders to help clean up the air.
By Friday, the California Air Resources Control Board may require nearly a million diesel trucks to phase in exhaust filters and new engines at a cost of tens of thousands of dollars and more per truck.
While the air board said it has $1 billion to help pay the bill, small truckers say the cost of complying with the new rules will drive some of them out of business, especially in the current recession.
“It would be devastating to both the local and state economy, not only for the trucking company but their families and their vendors,” said Kelly Kyle of Faulkner Trucking Co. in Tulare. “The snowball effect would be unbelievable.”
The agriculture industry, which uses a wide array of diesel engines, has negotiated changes with the air board staff that its representatives said their industry can live with.
“I wouldn’t say [the ag industry] is happy with the [proposed] rule,” said Patricia Stever, executive director of the Tulare County Farm Bureau. “We are at the point where we think the compromise can work for the industry.”
For clean-air advocates and the air board staff, the proposed rule is essentially a lifesaver, intended to control the diesel emissions of tiny particulates known as PM 2.5 and of nitrogen oxides that lodge in the lungs and help form smog.
The air board estimates that between 2010 and 2025 the rule would prevent 9,400 premature deaths, cut the number of asthma-related cases by 150,000 and lead to 950,000 fewer lost work days. It says the economic value of these health benefits is between $48 billion and $68 billion.
“In a way, people have been subsidizing the trucking industry with their health,” said Diane Bailey of the Natural Resources Defense Council.
The proposed rule has drawn a range of comment from some regional air boards.
The San Joaquin Valley San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District has not formally acted on it, but Executive Director Seyed Sadredin said the Valley needs major emission cuts by diesel trucks because they contribute half the pollution.
“If we shut down all the business in the Valley, we wouldn’t make a dent [in the pollution problem] if we still had those trucks [unregulated],” he said.
The proposed rule is the latest and most significant step by the air board to extend control over diesel emissions in the state.
Diesel emissions from trucks make up 28 percent of all the PM 2.5 and NOx pollution produced in the state, according to the air board.
It’s driven in part by the need to meet federal air- quality standards so the state will avoid the potential penalty of losing millions of dollars in transportation funds.
The penalty for truckers who fail to comply with air pollution rules can be up to a $1,000 per violation per day for some offenses.
The new rule would set out a schedule for all diesel trucks, based in or out of state, driven more than 1,000 miles a year generally to install filters for particulates between 2010 and 2014 and to upgrade engines to 2010 equivalents between 2012 and 2022.
There are a variety of exceptions, including fleets of three or fewer trucks, which wouldn’t have to meet new requirements until 2013.
Agriculture truckers who drive them seasonally or for other low-mileage uses such as fertilizer deliveries also would get more time to comply.
For example, any agricultural truck traveling less than 10,000 miles annually is exempt until 2023, with other delays based on a combination of mileage and truck age.
Further, specialty agricultural vehicles such as nurse rigs and cotton module trucks will get unique treatment.
The state air board estimates the cost of meeting the new regulations at about $5.5 billion between 2010 and 2025 and points to its $1 billion in financial aid as a way to help the neediest truckers.
“A drop in the bucket,” Sadredin said of the money, noting that only about half the funds would go to truckers and the rest to uses such as rail and ports.
Sadredin said the San Joaquin Valley alone needs $2 billion to pay half the cost for truckers, who then would have to cover the remaining cost.
The state air board is working on a low-interest, government-backed loan program that would leverage a $50 million pot of aid up to $350 million to help truckers pay the bills, said Erik White, chief of the office responsible for the diesel-engine regulations.
“We think that is emerging as a cost-effective way for the state to spend its resources and still provide relief,” White said.
Truckers said that some of them can’t qualify for state aid because they don’t drive enough miles, and that the recession makes any financing difficult and has already driven enough truckers out of business to reduce their industry’s emissions.
“Cleaning up the air is fine,” said Jim Ganduglia of Ganduglia Trucking in Fresno, joining other truckers in calling for more time to comply to avoid job losses. “They don’t care about the economy.”
The state air board concedes that there will be some job losses if the new diesel rules are adopted — between 4,600 and 13,600 jobs in the highest cost year of 2013 — but contends that the new rule will contribute to the growth of green jobs.
“In the long run, what you are going to see is the California fleet is going to be more modern, more efficient and new industries are going to spring up,” White said, though he conceded that he hasn’t been able to calculate the number of new jobs.
SCMP – Updated on Dec 11, 2008
By reducing the Discovery Bay ferry service, the passenger levels on each boat will be higher, making the system more efficient in terms of the highly polluting marine diesel that is being used.
Look at the cost in diesel used to transport one person from Discovery Bay to Central and compare that with the cost for a bus using zero-sulfur diesel to Sunny Bay and then for the MTR. Therefore I must agree with any reduction in the use of marine diesel.
As to costs, I drive to work and the cost of fuel has increased by more than 30 per cent in the past two years.
Even with the recent decreases the cost is still up. So I agree with the cost increase as well.
Discovery Bay residents should look outside their oyster shell and keep their whining within the confines of their shell. The residents made the choice to live there. If you don’t like it, you can leave.
Please don’t bother us with your problems all the time. Hong Kong is bigger than Discovery Bay.
Terry Greene, Yuen Long
Shi Jiangtao in Beijing, SCMP – Updated on Dec 09, 2008
Beijing saw some of its worst air pollution in the past six months yesterday, with its skyline engulfed in a blanket of smog.
This followed a brief respite during the Olympic Games, when prolonged traffic bans were put in place to clear the air.
The air pollution index, which measures air quality from noon to noon, reached 169, considered “slightly polluted” by national standards. Statistics from the Beijing municipal environmental protection bureau showed 27 out of 28 monitoring stations across the capital recorded figures designated as “slightly polluted” or “polluted”.
It was the third highest pollution level recorded since the Beijing Olympics, and came just days after the authorities declared Beijing had reached a self-imposed target number of clear-sky days for this year, thanks to the capital’s all-out effort to cut pollution ahead of the Games.
The capital cleared its smog-plagued air just in time for the Olympics with a series of temporary measures, such as pulling half the city’s 3.3 million cars off the road, halting construction and closing factories.
But with success comes higher public expectations for good air quality, prompting questions over the government’s ability to stamp out pollution, analysts said.
Choking smog had returned to the city of 17 million soon after strict anti-pollution regulations were lifted at the end of the Paralympics in September.
Under pressure, city authorities adopted a watered-down version of the Olympic traffic rules, banning private cars from roads on one weekday every week.
But the new restrictions have not worked.
The air pollution index reached 176 on October 18 and hit a six-month high of 186 on November 12.
Zhu Tong , an environmental expert at Peking University, said the existing restrictions did little to reduce emissions of airborne particles and sulfur dioxide from tens of thousands of coal-fired boilers, the main source of pollution in winter.
“Beijing still has a long way to go to convert coal-fuelled boilers and use clean energy,” Professor Zhu said.
He said stagnant weather conditions, meaning little wind or rainfall, had also worked against anti-pollution efforts.
Environmentalists and local residents have long cast doubts over the lasting environmental impact of the Olympics and the authorities’ promise that clear skies would remain after the Games.
Last week, Beijing said it had reached its target number of 256 “blue-sky days” this year, compared with 100 clear-sky days in 1998.
The central government has spent more than 150 billion yuan (HK$169 billion) in the past decade to clean up pollution in the capital.
Dec 08, 2008 – Leader
Our buses are a marvel of functionality on the city’s choked main thoroughfares, helping to keep people moving almost anywhere they want to go. They are an integral part of a safe, affordable public transport system that is the envy of most other places. Moves to streamline the services to meet the city’s changing needs are therefore welcome. But as we report today, they also face resistance.
Bus services, once confined to one operator on each side of the harbour, have proliferated even as the MTR trains have spread their reach underneath them. Compared with other large cities, travellers are often spoilt for choice. It is not surprising that there is room for streamlining, by removing or reducing some services that are duplicated and/or underused. The benefits of such a move include fewer buses contributing to congestion, and cleaner roadside air. People readily agree that would be a good thing, subject of course to the nimby (not in my backyard) syndrome. For the sake of their own convenience, they do not want services that run past their homes to be affected. Some even cite emotional attachment as a reason for keeping an old bus service. As a result, government officials find that however strong the case for cancelling or reducing a bus service on economic and environmental grounds, it can take years of lobbying to convince councils and residents to accept it.
There is no reason to suppose that a proposal to remove or reduce services on more than half the 26 bus routes that serve Eastern District will be any different. As we report today, a district councillor says the council is unlikely to accept such a “drastic” proposal. It is, however, only the beginning of the Transport Department’s route realignment plans for the 18 districts. The aim is to consolidate and reduce the number of buses that converge on major arteries such as King’s, Hennessy and Nathan roads. A government source rightly says that in King’s Road, for example, the choice of dozens of lines, all more or less going along the same route, does nothing for air quality or the economics of bus operations, not to mention traffic flow. Advisers to the government on air-quality objectives have suggested a 10 per cent cut in total bus trips by 2010 through route rationalisation.
The government’s policy intentions are good, but will challenge its powers of persuasion. The question is how to strike a balance with people’s desire for easy access to the most direct route to where they want to go. In such a densely populated, highly mobile society, tailoring transport services to demand is a constant priority. Reversing over-servicing can be politically difficult. But it could be made more palatable by a modern network of bus interchanges that offer flexibility in its place. An example is the airport route, serviced by buses that are often near empty. Granted, air travellers with luggage want the convenience of a direct route to the airport. But the wasteful, polluting use of resources could be reduced by an interchange at, say, Tsing Yi, where buses from all over could feed passengers to frequent departures for the airport.
The controversy over reclamation for the Central-Wan Chai bypass is a reminder that we cannot go on building new roads to improve traffic flow. Experience shows that they tend to create more traffic to fill them. Innovative solutions are called for to make better use of the roads we have. Bus interchanges that offer a pleasant, convenient experience and frequent, reliable services that meet demand could enhance the role that public transport plays in keeping us on the move.
Nov 28, 2008 – SCMP
I refer to the letters by Mary Chan (“Why allow polluting buses?”, November 17) and Charlie Chan (“Government and bus companies trying hard to curb pollution”, November 19). Hong Kong is still behind many major world-class cities in terms of introducing and implementing new pollution-reduction vehicles.
For example, more than 60 per cent of London’s huge bus fleet already meets Euro III emissions while the remainder have met Euro II standards. For Hong Kong, Euro II has not been implemented throughout the SAR. Only 84 per cent of buses will achieve this standard by 2011.
Nonetheless, unlike Ms Chan I still think buses are much more efficient than private cars and taxis in terms of emissions and space. Even if half-full, taxis are much less efficient as they occupy much more space just to transport a few (or sometimes only one) passengers. However, I do agree that overlapping bus routes should be adjusted to reduce stops.
Samuel Chan, Sha Tin
Nov 28, 2008 – SCMP
The most lethal thing you can breathe in at road level is particulate matter (PM) 2.5 emitted from the exhausts of old diesel vehicles, which exacerbates the PM2.5 in the air from our power companies.
Diesel emissions also contribute to our urban smog. The government has offered generous terms for the owners to trade up to newer Euro V vehicles.
This offer is akin to asking smokers to stop smoking.
The government needs to be more proactive and force these old diesel trucks and buses off our roads.
It would be interesting to know how many vehicles the bus companies here actually own rather than lease from the banks. Voluntary measures will not work so more stringent methods such as increased licensing costs need to be used.
James Middleton, Yuen Long
Cheung Chi-fai – SCMP | Updated on Nov 19, 2008
Licence fees for more than 30,000 commercial vehicles may rise under a proposal that aims to encourage the replacement of polluting vehicles older than 15 years, according to the environment watchdog.
The new rule would affect all types of commercial vehicles regardless of their fuel types and emission standards, but Environmental Protection Department officials gave no figures on fee increases they might be considering as enough to deter the continued use of old vehicles.
Officials said in a paper submitted to the legislature yesterday that the proposal was intended to be introduced by 2010, when the HK$3.2 billion subsidy for the replacement of the old diesel commercial vehicle fleet expired.
Launched last year, the scheme has been regarded as a failure as only 23 per cent of pre-Euro and 14 per cent of Euro I vehicles have been replaced with newer Euro IV models, which are up to two times cleaner than the old models.
The term Euro refers to a set of standards defining the acceptable limits for exhaust emissions of new vehicles sold in European Union member states.
The paper said older vehicles tended to have more breakdowns and tailpipe emissions of up to four times higher than a new vehicle.
Officials believed that a vehicle age of 15 years – and all pre-Euro standard vehicles will reach that age by 2010 – was the right threshold to trigger the fee increase.
There are about 30,000 vehicles registered on or before 1995 on the road, including more than 1,720 that are at least 20 years old. They are charged a licensing fee of between HK$1,289 and HK$8,429 each year.
Lai Kim-tak, spokesman for the Medium and Heavy Truck Concern Group, opposed the scheme, which he said would increase truck operators’ financial burden amid a serious business downturn. He said the government should buy old vehicles, similar to the chicken industry buyout.
But Friends of the Earth director Edwin Lau Che-feng said the proposed 15-year threshold was too lenient; the cut-off should be 10 years and made specific to each Euro-model standard.
He called for a double-digit fee rise and said the government could consider using vehicle mileage as one of the parameters to determine the level of the increase.
Cheung Chi-fai, SCMP – Nov 13, 2008
A pilot study on low-emission zones where polluting franchised buses are banned will finish next year, acting Secretary for the Environment Kitty Poon Kit told legislators yesterday.
Replying to Democrats lawmaker Kam Nai-wai’s queries on the scheme, Dr Poon said the government would wait until the study was completed to determine a timetable to implement it.
The pilot scheme will target buses first since they accounted for up to a third of traffic in busy areas such as Mong Kok, Causeway Bay and Central and their emissions were relatively high, according to Dr Poon.
“We have to look at a basket of factors including how it might impact on the traffic flow as well as roadside air quality.”
Vehicle emission standards would also be studied, she said. All new vehicles must met Euro IV emission standards. Vehicles that do not meet the standard might be banned from the low-emission zones.
Dr Poon said there were similar schemes in London, Toyko, Shanghai and Berlin and they varied in terms of the implementation period, types of vehicles affected, and enforcement.
But the legislators were unconvinced and criticised the government for failing to seriously and urgently address air pollution.
Some said the government was delaying through lengthy study. Others were unhappy the government had refused to pursue a more direct solution like replacing older buses.
“The air pollution can’t be more serious but the government always says it is studying it,” Mr Kam said. “So why did the government not use the $3.2 billion diesel vehicle replacement grant to phase out dirty buses and set a deadline for such a switch? Otherwise, we won’t solve the problems in 20 years,” he added. He was referring to the one-off grant to encourage vehicle owners to replace their pre-Euro and Euro I diesel commercial vehicles.
Dr Poon said there were existing plans between the Transport Department and the bus companies to replace the older bus fleet.
She said replacing the fleet earlier might cost the bus companies more money. Whether public funds should be used and how, if at all, to restructure fares would also have to be considered.
According to Dr Poon, the bus companies were already deploying environmentally friendly buses in busy districts.
She said about 80 per cent of franchised buses in Causeway Bay and Admiralty were already Euro II models or higher.
Joyce Ng – SCMP | Updated on Oct 30, 2008
Air quality in Guangdong and Hong Kong in the first half of the year was marginally worse than a year earlier, data from a regional network of monitoring stations shows.
Only three stations showed improvements over the same period last year, and pollution levels at all 16 exceeded the national air quality standard set for general residential areas part of the time.
Air quality was unsatisfactory 28.07 per cent of the time on average, compared with 27.68 per cent in the corresponding period last year. A Hong Kong government source said it would not be scientific to compare two years’ data and conclude air pollution had not improved.
The three stations which showed improvement were in Guangzhou and Foshan. The other 13, including the three stations in Hong Kong – in Tsuen Wan, at Tung Chung near the airport on Lantau and at Tap Mun, or Grass Island, in Mirs Bay off the north coast of Sai Kung – all had worse readings than a year earlier.
The government source ascribed the improvement in air quality in Foshan to the relocation of highly polluting ceramics factories. The worst air quality was recorded in March because winds were too light to dispel pollution, the source said. Coastal areas had better air quality because summer ocean winds dispersed pollutants. Regional air quality is graded from 1 (the best) to 5 (the worst).
Respirable suspended particulates were a bigger problem than the three other pollutants measured – ozone, nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide.
In parts of Guangzhou, Foshan and Huizhou, the level of respirable suspended particles of a diameter of 10 microns or more (known as PM10) exceeded safe levels between 20 and 29 per cent of the time, or for 25 to 47 days in six months.
The monitoring network was set up by Guangdong’s Environmental Protection Bureau and the Environment, Transport and Works Bureau in Hong Kong three years ago.
Despite a lack of significant improvement in air quality since then, the source said the government was confident of achieving some of the 2010 targets jointly set for emissions reductions. As well as factories relocating, vehicles in some Guangdong cities had switched to cleaner fuels, the source said.
Alexis Lau Kai-hon, an atmospheric scientist at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, said his research showed there had been hardly any improvement in air quality in the region since 2004, although there was no clear sign either that it was getting worse.
He agreed that joint monitoring was beneficial, but urged the mainland authorities to release data on a daily basis instead of once every six months to allow for better research.
Hahn Chu Hon-keung, environmental affairs manager for campaign group Friends of the Earth, said the closure of some factories on the mainland and the relocation of others might have helped improve air quality in some places, but it was time governments stepped up efforts to reduce roadside pollution.
“One major source for PM10 is vehicular emissions. There is plenty of room for mainland authorities to reduce roadside pollution,” he said.
“For Hong Kong, power plants’ emissions reductions have had an effect, but there’s a need to replace old heavy diesel vehicles more quickly.”