EPA awarding $125 million to replace diesel engines with cleaner alternatives

The Environmental Protection Agency has selected numerous projects across the United States to receive grants totaling $125 million that will fund efforts to get older diesel engines linked to serious health problems off the roads and move communities toward cleaner or zero-emissions solutions.

Once selections are finalized, the grants will be funded through the EPA’s Diesel Emissions Reduction Act (DERA) National Grants Program. The program prioritizes projects in areas that face air quality impacts, with an emphasis on disadvantaged communities and other areas that face public health or environmental justice risks or impacts.

Nearly 8 million older diesel engines across transportation sectors remain in service and emit higher levels of harmful nitrogen oxides and particulate matter than newer diesel engines, the EPA says. These pollutants are linked to a range of serious health problems including asthma, lung and heart disease, other respiratory ailments and premature death.

“Every community deserves to breathe clean air, but too many communities are still over-burdened by pollution from older diesel equipment,” says EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan. “With the latest round of funding, EPA’s successful DERA program will upgrade these sources of harmful pollution, and accelerate real progress toward a cleaner, more just, and healthier future for all Americans.”

Projects include engine replacements and upgrades to school buses, port equipment and construction equipment. More than half of the selections will support replacing older equipment and vehicles with zero-emission technologies that include electric school buses, tractors and drayage trucks along with providing shore power to marine vessels.

All selected projects will reduce diesel pollution and benefit local communities, the EPA says. Selections include:

$6.2 million to the Connecticut Maritime Foundation to replace 26 uncontrolled propulsion engines with certified propulsion engines and four auxiliary generator set engines.