Clean up diesel engines
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This is a story about a problem that we can solve with a bit of help from Congress.
Fifteen years ago, there was no such thing as a clean diesel. City transit riders held their breath when the bus pulled away from the curb, and parents worried about their children being exposed to plumes of black smoke from the tailpipes of old school buses. Diesel trucks brought us the goods we wanted, but with a side dish of pollution.
Today, new diesel buses, trucks and other engines are more than 90 percent cleaner. These new diesel engines operate smoke-free, have created thousands of new jobs in the hard-hit engine manufacturing sector and elsewhere, and are helping to save fuel costs by operating more efficiently. A national diesel clean-up effort has enjoyed broad, bipartisan support.
President Bill Clinton signed the first regulation to clean up diesel trucks and buses in 2001, and President George W. Bush signed the next regulation to clean up diesel construction and farm equipment in 2004.
In 2005, Congress followed up by passing the Diesel Emissions Reduction Act, a five-year effort to accelerate the clean-up of the millions of dirty diesel engines still in use. DERA sought to improve America's air quality by modernizing older diesel engines and equipment through engine replacements and retrofits in all 50 states.
From 2008 through 2010, Pennsylvania received more than $11.3 million in DERA funding -- the 10th most of all 50 states -- to upgrade, replace or retrofit construction equipment, school bus fleets, transit buses, locomotives and marine engines with new clean diesel technology.
This included projects operated by Allegheny County (to replace transit buses and retrofit construction vehicles), the Port of Pittsburgh Commission (to repower marine vessels), the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (to repower tug and tow boats), the Pennsylvania Clean Diesel Project (to improve school, transit and inner city bus fleets) and other railroad, marine and construction initiatives. Future DERA projects could continue to retrofit and upgrade additional on-road and off-road diesel engines now required under Pittsburgh's new clean air laws.
First Published July 28, 2011 12:00 am
