My Final Thoughts (on ISRs)
By Thomas Jelenić, Vice President, Pacific Merchant Shipping Association
Like the proverbial bad penny, that unkillable cockroach, or the friend who doesn’t get the hint, some bad ideas will not go away. As always, I am talking about indirect source rules or “ISRs”. It continues to baffle me why anyone would want to regulate anything indirectly, particularly if you are serious about air quality. The obvious answer is that air quality is not the driving force but rather the ability to make de facto land use decisions. That is because ISRs regulate activity, a function of land use, in an attempt to circumvent the prohibition on local agencies regulating tailpipe emissions without U.S. EPA concurrence. If an agency controls activity, it controls land use.
Given the enormous power that land use control entails, it is no surprise that ISRs are the perennial prize to be won by regulators. And it is not surprising that some advocates hope to achieve, in terms of land use, what they have failed to achieve with elected city councils and boards of supervisors, namely limits on types of developments that they disfavor.
Despite the clamor in some quarters for ISRs, the concept has not fared well recently. Last year in San Diego, the Air Pollution Control District voted to support staff’s recommendation demurring on a regulatory approach for ports and pursuing a collaborative one, and just this month the District also voted to not move forward with a warehouse ISR. In Southern California, the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles signed a historic Cooperative Agreement in Winter of 2025 with the South Coast Air Quality Management District to set aside a regulatory approach and focus on what the region desperately needs: infrastructure. One major reason for this outcome is because the existing regulatory framework works so well – just here in San Pedro Bay, diesel pollution has been reduced by 90%. Finally, AB 914, which sought ISRs state-wide, died an ignominious death in committee. That sort of record doesn’t call for overturning the current regulatory approach, as ISRs do, but continuing the success of the current framework.
One might think with cooler heads prevailing so completely that ISRs would be put to rest for a generation – or at least skip a legislative session – but that does not seem to be the case. Like the weeds that you thought you had pulled out by the roots, ISRs have resprouted in the Legislature and now in the Bay Area.
AB 1777 has been introduced in the Assembly calling, again, for a state-wide ISRs. This would specifically vest the California Air Resources Board (CARB) with the authority to implement ISRs. Remember, ISRs regulate activity. So, in effect the Legislature would be granting land use authority to CARB, effectively creating the equivalent of the Coastal Commission for the entire State with the ability to steamroll local land use decisions. Some may object, stating that land use decisions will remain with local authorities. However, the ability to designate land use is meaningless if another agency can determine the level of activity that land use can undertake.
For those who think this is proposed legislation is unique, look no further than SB 1075, explicit in its goal to ensure alignment between land use decisions and approved emissions reduction plans. This would force local elected officials to align their land use plans with decisions of an unelected community group.
And now, the Bay Area Air District has taken the first steps to implement a warehouse ISR. This, despite the fact, that analysis by Ramboll, one of the nation’s most respected air quality analysis firms, determined that SCAQMD’s warehouse ISR produces no meaningful benefits at up to nine times the cost of initial estimates. Even U.S. EPA “did not find a sufficient basis to credit [the warehouse ISR] with achieving a specific amount of emissions reductions”. This only results in higher costs during an affordability crisis with nothing to show in return.
Again, stakeholders need to remain vigilant and push back on bad ideas. In California, we have vested many agencies powerful regulatory powers to address areas of public concern, be it air quality, water quality, workplace safety, or other issues. But because those agencies are single issue agencies that do not consider the wide scope of public policy, their powers are intentionally enumerated and circumscribed in scope. Instead, Californians have left it to elected officials, particularly locally elected officials, to make the hard calls between jobs and housing and parks and zoning and so many other civic issues – the issues that take into account the whole of daily life. Collectively, we should reject the idea that any single-issue agency has so much scope to shape daily life in our communities.
Thomas A. Jelenić is Vice President for Pacific Merchant Shipping Association (PMSA). Mr. Jelenić works with policy makers, regulators, industry leaders, and other entities to help ensure that sound science and industry issues are part of the discussion.
Mr. Jelenic has two decades of maritime industry experience, including more than 14 years in environmental and planning positions at the Port of Long Beach, the nation’s second busiest seaport, and senior management roles in private consulting and logistics development. His work includes leading successful efforts to manage complex air quality, transportation, and greenhouse gas issues related to the shipping industry. He contributed to the development of the landmark San Pedro Bay Clean Air Action Plan and the Clean Trucks Program for the Port of Long Beach. Prior to joining PMSA, Mr. Jelenić managed the CEQA review and approvals for the World Logistics Center, the largest private‐sector logistics development in California encompassing over 40 million square feet of buildings and facilities covering 4 square miles of property in Moreno Valley, California.
He is a graduate of the University of California, Irvine, with dual Bachelor of Science degrees in Environmental Engineering and Civil Engineering with an emphasis in transportation and water resources.