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Diesel Retrofit Grants and Clean Diesel Campaign Announced

Release Date: 02/23/2005
Contact Information: John Millett, (202) 564-7842 / millet.john@epa.gov

(St. Louis -- 02/23/05) $1.6 million in grants for diesel engine retrofit projects is being announced by Acting EPA Administrator, Steve Johnson at a press event today in St. Louis. Eighteen diesel retrofit projects are being funded as part of EPA's new Clean Diesel Campaign. The recipients will retrofit diesel vehicles and equipment with advanced technologies and cleaner fuels to reduce emissions of particulate matter (soot) and other pollutants.

"These projects are vital to achieving clean air," said Steve Johnson. "We are well on our way to a future where nearly every type of diesel engine - whether used on farms, railways, highways, ports or in construction - will be part of a growing clean diesel family."

Steve Johnson was joined by Jim Guiliford, EPA Region 7 Administrator, Lori Pickens, CEO, American Lung Association and Christopher Amos, St. Louis Commissioner of Equipment Services. The local St.Louis project will retrofit refuse trucks with diesel oxidation catalysts and crankcase controls to reduce harmful diesel emissions. The project will greatly benefit susceptible populations in the greater St. Louis area as these trucks run eight hours a day - five days a week most of the year in residential communities. The 44 trucks that will be retrofitted represent approximately 50 percent of the St. Louis fleet.

The EPA Clean Diesel Campaign grants reflect a wide variety of projects, including construction, agriculture and port equipment, waste haulers, locomotives, fire trucks and ambulances. Grant recipients are located in large and small communities across the country and all will be providing additional funds and/or services related to their projects. Each project will help reduce the impacts of pollution on populations that are especially susceptible to the effects of diesel exhaust, including children, the elderly, and the chronically ill.

The Clean Diesel Campaign consists of both regulatory and voluntary efforts to reduce emissions from new diesel engines as well as existing diesel engines by 2014. Many areas of the country are designated as nonattainment for particulate matter and/or ozone. The campaign contains two components to help those areas reduce diesel pollution: develop and implement the most stringent emissions standards for new engines and fuel; and promote voluntary emissions reductions of the existing fleet through retrofits, cleaner fuels, replacement, reduced idling and other pollution-cutting measures.

EPA's clean diesel program combined with Clear Skies legislation would bring nearly every county that is currently not meeting the new air quality standards for ozone and particulate matter into attainment with these standards. Communities all across the country would have cleaner air.

For more information on the grantees and the retrofit projects go to: https://www.epa.gov/dieselretrofit/dieselgrants2004.htm .

Additional information on the full range of clean diesel programs can be found at: https://www.epa.gov/cleandiesel . Information on Clear Skies is at: https://www.epa.gov/clearskies .