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And while one provision of the state health and safety code says that state air board has responsibility for controlling motor vehicle emissions in California, such as California's smog check program, other sections also give the air district power to mandate reductions in vehicle use.

In Valeriano's view, that means the district could create a "stick" for its diesel incentive program by simply restricting use of high-polluting vehicles on bad air days.

"The district does have authority to say you can't run dirty equipment on a bad pollution day," he said. "It's just like the fireplace rule. You can't run your fireplace on the worst pollution days in the wintertime."

In the face of the uncertainty, he said, the air district chose to play it safe instead of proposing new rules that might be challenged.

Valeriano quit the air district a few weeks after the district's governing board approved the new ozone plan.

Nester had assigned him to critique an independent alternative ozone plan funded by the Hewlett Foundation. Now Valeriano works as a consultant for the organization that wrote that alternative plan, the International Sustainable Systems Research Center.

The alternative plan was a wide-ranging attack on the district's ozone plan. It urged the district to persuade fleet owners to add SCR-based catalysts or other advanced pollution controls on existing trucks. It also proposed, in its initial version, a "fix it or park it" program requiring add-on devices or other measures for high-polluting diesel engines.

Valeriano said he quit the district because he agreed with the findings of the report he was being asked to evaluate.

"If I kept working there, I would just be making excuses," he said.

Roberts, meanwhile, continues to wait for the state air board to finish reviewing his device.

He wonders why it is taking so long, since the heart of his process -- SCR -- is not really that new. Only its application to motor vehicles is new. And even that has been done on a limited scale in Europe.

"SCR has been the standard in NOx control in large power applications for over 30 years now," he said. "We do believe that the technology is commercially ready and we hope to get it through the verification process as soon as possible."

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