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U.S. EPA putting its money to work, to clean up diesel engines

Release Date: 04/09/2008
Contact Information: Mary Simms, (415) 947-4270, [email protected]

(4/9/2008 -- SAN FRANCISCO) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Regions 9 and 10 have announced a regional competition through the West Coast Collaborative, for more than $5 million to deploy verified or certified clean diesel technologies. The EPA is encouraging all qualified applicants to submit proposals for funding now.

It’s part of an initiative to significantly reduce diesel emissions in Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, and the U.S. Pacific Islands.

"We have to accelerate air quality improvements,” said Deborah Jordan, Air Division director for the U.S. EPA’s Pacific Southwest region. “One of the most cost-effective ways to do that is by modernizing our legacy diesel fleet. Through this initiative, EPA hopes to deploy the latest and cleanest technologies to reduce emissions from diesel engines, which will result in significant benefits to public health.”

Through the National Clean Diesel Campaign, the EPA is awarding $49.2 million in grants nationwide, to assist its eligible partners in building diesel emissions reduction programs across the country.

Diesels are the economic workhorses of the nation, and over the past decade, the EPA has set stringent new particulate and nitrogen oxide standards for most types of new engines. These regulations will annually prevent more than 20,000 premature deaths and yield more than $150 billion in public health benefits when fully implemented. This funding is aimed at reducing emissions from the existing fleet of 11 million diesel engines that predate these standards. Addressing the existing fleet is important because diesels remain in use for decades.

State, local, regional and tribal agencies or port authorities with jurisdiction over transportation or air quality can apply for the grants. Certain additional organizations are also eligible to apply, see the request for proposal for more details on applicant eligibility.

The grants target school and transit buses, medium and heavy-duty trucks, marine engines, locomotives, and non-road engines, such as those used in construction or agriculture. Grant recipients can use a variety of cost effective emissions reduction strategies, such as EPA-verified retrofit and idle-reduction technologies, EPA-certified engine upgrades, vehicle or equipment replacements, cleaner fuels, and creation of innovative clean diesel financing programs.

The closing date and time for submission of proposals is Tuesday, July 1, at 5 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time. EPA Regions 9 and 10 anticipate awarding six to nine assistance agreements from this announcement, with awards ranging from $500,000 to $1 million.

The full request for proposal, and additional information is available at: https://www.epa.gov/region10/cleandiesel.html. Additional information on the West Coast Collaborative, including a fact sheet on the funding program, is available at http://www.westcoastcollaborative.org.

Public questions about the RFP should be directed to Lucita Valiere, EPA Region 10, at: [email protected].

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