by US correspondent Roger Renstrom
The California Air Resources Board (CARB) has indefinitely postponed its consideration of a rulemaking proposal for off-road large spark ignition (LSI) engines, including those powering some forklifts.

"Additional time is necessary to resolve remaining stakeholder issues," the regulatory agency said in a statement this week. Numerous forklift rental dealers in California have reacted negatively to aspects of the CARB proposal, and their lobbying may have been a factor in the agency going through the issue again.

The postponement of a planned October 20-21 hearing "will also provide CARB staff an opportunity to harmonise the LSI test procedures with those published by the United States Environmental Protection Agency in June 2005", Sacramento-based CARB said.

The state agency's pending proposal deals with emission standards for used forklifts other than those that entered the Californian market during a 2001-2004 phase-in and more recently under LSI engine standards for new forklifts (Forkliftaction.com News #225).