March 14, 2024
American Rental Association (ARA) equipment rental operators in California need to pay close attention to the California Air Resources Board’s (CARB) revised in-use, non-road diesel regulations that went into effect Jan. 1.
The bottom line is that fleets must use renewable diesel in their covered equipment. “CARB updated and amended the in-use, non-road diesel regulation to require the use of this diesel. There does not seem to be an exemption for small fleets either,” says John McClelland, Ph.D., ARA vice president of government affairs and chief economist.
However, not all California equipment rental operators will be impacted by this ruling. “Fleets or ‘fleet portions’ that are completely Tier 4 are exempt from the renewable diesel requirement,” he says.
For those who are affected, “renewable diesel is widely available in California,” McClelland says. “Apparently, 50 percent or so of all California diesel for sale is R99 or R100. Currently, the credit system produces price parity with low-sulfur petroleum diesel.”
There are two main issues the new regulation poses for rental operators. The first centers around the “pour point, which creates a problem for renewable diesel in very cold areas. A winter exemption is present in the rule. The second issue is that non-100 percent-Tier 4 final fleets will be required to do recordkeeping and convert diesel storage on-site to R99 or R100 as well as enforce renewable diesel use by renters using contractual requirements,” McClelland says.
For more details on this regulation, click here. For questions, contact McClelland at 202-306-0769 or john.mcclelland@ararental.org.
