US EPA just announced today that it has awarded $1.13 million in a first of-its-kind grant to the non-profit Cascade Sierra Solutions to support truckers installing idle-reduction devices. According to the press release (below), the The Coburg, Ore.-based organization will use the $1.13 million EPA grant, and leverage an additional $17.1 million, to provide below-market interest rate loans to truckers, allowing them to install idle reduction technologies on more than 1,700 trucks. Note that EPA announced today its plans to disburse the first $50 million in grants nationwide to support diesel emissions reduction efforts. There were a few press releases on the EPA News web page ( http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/Press Releases By% 20Date!OpenView) describing some of the first recipients. US EPA will hand off some of the millions to some state agencies, which will disburse the funds. Point is, there's money out there to support voluntary efforts to clean up in-use diesel emissions. It's not just a nice idea, either. The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that under the federal Clean Air Act, California is the only government in the United States that can INITIATE emissions standards for EXISTING nonroad engines. The court also stated that other states cannot enact standards EXCEPT those adopted by California. Many states will be motivated to adopt CARB's rule (and they can only adopt it exactly as CARB wrote it) by the poor air quality in their borders. States that include areas that have not yet attained EPA's minimum air-quality standards (see a map of nonattainment areas here http://www.constructionequipment.com/article/CA6500620.html ) may decide they need to regulate in-use off-road diesel engines. If so, they will have to adopt CARB's rules. Or a state may have other air-quality priorities and decide that it doesn't need to regulate in-use off-road diesels. It's up to each individual state. Chances are very good, however, that many states will apply the CARB rules that are chasing Tier 0 and Tier 1 machines out of California, and forcing CA contractors to fit Tier 3 and Tier 4 machines with exhaust aftertreatment devices, and submit written idle-reduction plans. ADios, Larry U.S. EPA Awards $1.13 Million Grant to West Coast Non-profit to Help Truckers Save Fuel, Improve Air Quality Release date: 09/24/2008 Contact Information: Wendy Chavez, 415/947-4248, chavez.wendy@... Program will save $10 million in fuel costs, reduce 28,000 tons of carbon dioxide SAN FRANCISCO – Under the 2005 Energy Policy Act's landmark clean diesel legislation, U.S. EPA Pacific Southwest Administrator Wayne Nastri today awarded $1.13 million in a first of-its-kind grant to Cascade Sierra Solutions to help the non-profit lower thousands of truckers' fuel costs and reduce greenhouse gas emissions and diesel pollution. The Coburg, Ore.-based non-profit will use the $1.13 million EPA grant, and leverage an additional $17.1 million, to provide below- market interest rate loans to truckers, allowing them to install idle reduction technologies on more than 1,700 trucks. "Reducing emissions from diesel engines is one of the most important air quality challenges facing the country," said Nastri during a ceremony to award the grant. "As a result of this innovative financing program, Cascade Sierra Solutions will lead the way by helping thousands of truckers save fuel, save money and improve air quality up and down the West Coast." Under the program, truckers will save approximately $10 million in fuel costs per year, or over 2.5 million gallons of diesel fuel per year -- and at the same time reduce 28,000 tons of carbon dioxide, 32 tons of particulate matter, and 630 tons of nitrous oxides per year. Diesel engines emit some 7.3 million tons of nitrogen oxides and 333,000 tons of soot annually, which is linked to thousands of premature deaths, hundreds of thousands of asthma attacks and millions of lost work days. Cascade Sierra Solutions was formed in 2006, and received a $200,000 EPA grant, through the West Coast Collaborative, to bring fuel- saving, cost-saving and environmentally-beneficial technology to the heavy-duty diesel truck fleet along the West Coast. To date, they've worked on over 1,500 trucks, saving 2.7 million gallons of fuel and reducing CO2 emissions by more than 27,000 metric tons. The non-profit showcases and installs equipment that conforms to the EPA's SmartWay guidelines, which results in increases in efficiency and reductions in emissions through aerodynamics, weight reduction, fuel efficient tires and exhaust filtering. CSS also opened its first outreach center in California today, and has two other centers in Oregon. In addition to CSS, two other organizations were also awarded a total of $2.27 million today under the same program: Community Development Transportation Lending Services of Washington, D.C., and Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association of Grain Valley, Mo. Today's announcement is the first $3.4 million in funding for clean diesel projects under the $50 million National Clean Diesel Campaign. The funding, newly available this year, will support grants to help save fuel and lower greenhouse gas and diesel exhaust emissions from the existing fleet of 11 million diesel engines. As part of the funding, $14.8 million is available for state clean diesel programs. All fifty states will receive a grant from the EPA for clean diesel activities this year, and 35 states will match resources toward the program. Another $27.6 million in grants will also be made available by the agency's ten regional offices in late fall. In addition, awards for grants for emerging technologies totaling approximately $3.4 million will be announced in the winter. The EPA's new heavy-duty highway and nonroad diesel engine standards will take effect over the next decade, and will significantly reduce emissions from new engines. However, the standards apply only to engines manufactured in the year 2007 and beyond. The 11 million diesel engines in use today will continue to pollute unless emissions are controlled with innovative technology and/or cleaner fuels. The EPA's National Clean Diesel Campaign assists fleets with controlling diesel emissions from the 11 million diesel engines with financial and technical assistance. For more information on the National Clean Diesel Campaign, visit http://www.epa.gov/cleandiesel . For more information about fuel savings and reducing the carbon footprint of vehicles, and for loan application information, visit the EPA's SmartWay Transport Partnership at http://www.epa.gov/smartway
Yet California allows burning of agricultural fields to clear weeds and stubble. Now just how much particulate matter and other noxious emissions do you suppose that releases into the air? Just north of Sacramento last week the smoke was so bad traffic was forced to slow to a crawl on I-5. No visibility, and for folks like us with severe asthmatic reactions to smoke it was a real bad experience. The entire northern end of the Grand Valley was polluted with smoke clear up to Red Bluff. CARB ought to be outlawed so far as I'm concerned, or confined to regulate pollution emissions emanating only from LA, San Francisco, and Sacramento, particularly those coming from in or near the state capitol building and governors office.
Like it or not the regulations are here to stay, if you can make use of the grant money to stay in business get in line while they offer it.
So what constitutes an "idle reduction device".....turning the key off???
spending another $50 million we don't have...typical government
I would guess that they are talking about small generators with built on a/c and heating units that use a bunch less fuel then a truck engine, or maybe more memberships to the truckstops with the power/climate/internet stands.
I see this as the beginning of the end of our way of life. We let a secondary government dictate to the rest of the country how everyone is to operate their lifes. California passes a law that limits the kinds of engines that can be operated in their state. Now the Federal government feels responsible and provides money to residents of California to meet regulations that are not in force anywhere else in the country. HUH!!! Why should I have to support the people of California when I didn't have any say in who their lawmakers are? Isn't that taxation without representation.
Good point John C.!
I haven't read the US Court of Appeals' final decision, but I believe the ruling actually is an example of reasonably efficient governing. The goal of regulating diesel engines is to make air safe to breathe. There are heavily populated areas in many states of the union whose air quality is a threat to people with weakened imune systems (the reason for the Clean Air Act). California has areas with the worst air quality in the nation, and the state is most motivated to write regulations that clean it up -- why not let them write the regulations (rather than the Feds), and allow individual states to adopt the regs as necessary (rather than allow each state to write its own regs, burning through a bunch more tax money each time and creating a hodgepodge of emissions regs all over the country)? What am I missing? L
It's just like the tricks our Gov plays , they come out with a grand statement like that and then we find it's just "jobs for the boys" . It will all go to Govt departments to "Over see" and give advice and you guys will get a hundred bucks . The last one our Gov pulled was "Drought Relief" for farmers . No paying off of overdue loans , no help with stock feed costs , but plenty of money for suicide counciling for farmers . No self respecting farmer would leave his dying stock and starving family to drive into town and get "COUNCILING" . One farmer i know could not afford the 30,000 22 bullets to put his 30,000 head of sheep down and could not get a grant so the whole herd was left to die an agonising death .
The hodgepodge of emissions regulations is caused directly by California. The manufacture of automobiles, on highway trucks, off highway equipment and industrial equipment is national and international in its scope. As has happened in the auto industry there are California cars and all the rest. The same goes for trucks. Apparently California had no real case to argue before a federal congress that they were better able to run the countries pollution regulations so they decided they were their own sovereign nation and could tell the rest of the world what would be tolerated in California. In that issue I don't care, I don't live there and have no say in how they run their country. What I do have a problem with is they are now trying to outlaw all diesel engines that are Tier 1 and older. That in itself will cause the mass exportation of non compliant machinery to neighboring states messing up markets. The only way to mitigate that issue is for the neighboring states to also make non complying machinery illegal. Texas, Oregon and Washington states have joined with California in pushing to self regulate. That may be those politicians pushing an agenda to cement a legacy or just plain old self preservation. Because the federal government won't make a stand and liberal judges from past administrations have been put in the court system we have a federal government that will not fight the point that those regulations are clearly federal in nature and not for states to decide. Now a federal agency is giving away federal money in support of a state that going beyond federal law. So now we have the specter of all fifty states making their own regulations as to what emissions are acceptable or not. Should the politicians where I live, Washington State, make this the law here, I will do what I can to vote them out of office and change the law by initiative. I don't have that option in California. So the question becomes what manufacturer will attempt to comply with all the different regulations. Witness Caterpillar getting out of the highway engine business. Many believe this will create a large market for new machinery to be sold to take the place of the non-complying models. In fact it will be fastest way to drive out small businesses, leaving only the large companies that can swing the financing to comply. What do you think will happen in the competitive bidding process for societal projects? My final thought in this is that I believe the air quality in Washington State to be far cleaner now than it was in the sixties. At what point in all this regulation is the cost to comply going beyond all the possible health benefits?