California agency: Clean up warehouse air

LOS ANGELES — Southern California air-quality regulators on Friday approved a rule that would curb diesel emissions from thousands of trucks that ferry goods from the growing number of massive warehouses in the region run by Amazon and other companies.

Areas around the facilities have weathered increased pollution, affecting their largely minority communities.

The warehouse rule was approved 9-4 by the South Coast Air Quality Management District board. It requires about 3,000 distribution centers to choose from a menu of options to reduce or offset emissions. Those options could include replacing diesel trucks and other equipment with electric models, putting in rooftop solar panels, or installing air filters at nearby schools or day care centers.

“Warehouse operators could prepare and implement a custom plan specific to their site, or they could pay a mitigation fee,” the proposal read. The fees would go toward funding similar air-quality improvements in surrounding neighborhoods.

South Coast district officials said they acted in order to meet federal smog-reduction deadlines in 2023 and 2031.

The Air Quality Management District said in a socioeconomic impact assessment report earlier this year that the regulations would provide public health benefits worth $2.7 billion from 2022 to 2031 — including 5,800 fewer asthma attacks and 300 fewer deaths.

Environmental and activist groups praised the vote, saying it will reduce pollution while providing local clean-energy jobs.

The rule “is the first step in eliminating toxic emissions from one of the nation’s largest and most profitable industries,” said a joint statement from the Sierra Club, Earthjustice, People’s Collective for Environmental Justice and the Partnership for Working Families.

But the Los Angeles County Business Federation said the rule amounts to an unauthorized job-killing tax.