Licking Heights Local School District received $54,418 to retrofit 31 school buses under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
The retrofits will reduce diesel exhaust inhaled by children, who are most susceptible to air pollution that can cause asthma and bronchitis among other ailments.
Click here to read the full article “Licking Heights receives $54K for school bus work”
Five schools in the Akron, Ohio area will get federal stimulus money to retrofit diesel-powered school buses. Together, the districts will install anti-pollution equipment on 67 buses. In total, the Ohio EPA awarded $1.87 million to 31 schools to clean up 528 school buses.
Click here to read the full article “Area schools get money to clean up polluting buses”
The head of the Environmental Protection Agency, Lisa P. Jackson, announced more than $16 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding will go to reducing diesel emissions in Washington State.
The individual grants will go towards retrofitting engines with diesel oxidation catalysts, among other projects to clean the air.
Click here to read the full article “EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson Announces Over $16 million in Recovery Act Dollars to Bolster Clean Air in Washington”
Crookston Public Schools in Minnesota are running cleaner thanks to the installation of filters and catalyst retrofits, which cut emissions by up to 50 percent.
Independent School District 593 and the Tri-Valley Opportunity Council partnered with Project Green Fleet to help reduce diesel emissions from the school buses.
Sixteen school buses and six Head Start buses have been retrofitted with pollution control equipment.
To date Project Green Fleet has helped retrofit 1,400 buses – allowing school children to breath cleaner air and reducing exposure to harmful emissions.
Click here to read the full article “Crookston school, Head Start buses are ‘greener’”
Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality helped retrofit twelve buses in Starkville, MS to reduce tailpipe emissions.
The retrofits were made possible through a combination of funding from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and stimulus funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
“This fits in with our initiative to meet the needs of the community,” said Walter Gonsoulin, assistant superintendent for operations.
Click here for the full article “Free retrofit improves school bus emissions”
The University of Hawaii was the stage for the $1.7 million federal funds for cleaner diesel vehicles for schools announcement last week.
The funding will replace five buses in Kona on the Big Island and five other DOE trucks owned by the university.
The officials say the diesel vehicle replacements will reduce nitrogen oxides and particulate matter by over 2.3 tons per year.
Click here to see the full article “Fed money to fund cleaner diesel vehicles effort in Hawaii”
Click here to read the press release “Hawaii Department of Health to use U.S. EPA $1.73 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding for cleaner diesel vehicles “
A report issued last week by the Environmental Protection Agency shows the $50 million program which allowed the U.S. EPA to purchase or retrofit 14,000 diesel-powered vehicles paid off.
The Diesel Emission Reduction Program (DERP) resulted in reducing 46,000 tons of NOx and 2,200 tons of particulate matter over a vehicle’s lifetime.
DERP provides financial support for retrofits, repairs, replacements, idle reduction, cleaner fuels and other clean technologies
Click here to read the full article “EPA reports to Congress on Clean Diesel Program”
South Carolina is working hard to decrease the amount of asthma and bronchitis cases by taking steps to minimize harmful emissions from its aging school bus fleet.
With about $1.6 million, mostly in federal money, the state is implementing diesel emission reduction tactics such as installing anti-idling devices and retrofitting 1, 549 buses to date.
Asthma and bronchitis were the leading cause of hospitalization in children under 18 in South Carolina in 2007, according to the state Department of Heath and Environmental Control.
Click here to read the full article “State targets school bus emissions”
Louisiana contractors watch closely as California gets ready to impose new restrictions on construction companies which will require phasing out or retrofitting most of their heavy equipment.
The California Air Resource Board support the new 2010 emissions law because off-road diesel vehicles accounted for 24 percent of statewide particle matter emissions and 19 percent nitrogen oxide emissions in 2007.
Because this expensive equipment makes up the majority of a contractor’s property and assets, the possibility of requiring them to be removed or overhauled can severely damage a company’s worth and ability to work.
California’s new rules come at a time when some Louisiana lawmakers are expressing interest in cutting diesel emissions. But contractors may still have time before any changes come.
Click here to read the full article, “Lean, green machines: Contractors wary of emissions laws calling for heavy equipment overhaul”
The New York City Council passed landmark legislation last week, which will reduce the toxic engine emissions from the 7,000 public school buses that run in the city.
The new law requires all public school buses to undergo engine emission retrofits and will be retired 3 years earlier than currently required. Instead of retiring the old school buses at 19 years, they will be replaced with brand-new vehicles at 16 years old. The new buses are required to meet the highest emission standards possible.
The New York City public school bus system transports over 138,000 school children every day.
Click here to read the full article “Environmental Defense Fund Commends NYC Council for Passing Bill to Cut Toxic Emissions”
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