‘DERA’ TO YOUR HEART Te industry learned last fall that school buses are the single largest seg-
ment of transportation vehicles to receive grant funds tied to the EPA’s National Clean Diesel Program for retrofits such as diesel particulate filters, idle reduction equipment such as direct-fuel heaters and replacement buses. Jim Blubaugh, manager of EPA’s National Clean Diesel Program, made the
comments to attendees at the NASDPTS Annual Meeting, held last year in Portland, Ore. Two weeks earlier, EPA celebrated 10 years of its clean diesel improvements with Clean Diesel ‘10. School transportation has received more federal attention than any other
segment as 5,500 school buses have been affected by funding over the last sev- eral years. School buses received $8 million in clean diesel funds in fiscal year 2008 plus another $2 million in matching funds. Of the stimulus money, $120 million went to replacing, retrofitting or repowering school buses, and on top of that came another $20 million in matching funds. Te regular fiscal year appropriations for clean diesel in 2009 and 2010 resulted in an additional $20 million in school bus project awards plus $15 million matched by organizations. A total of $49.2 million in program funds was made available to all appli-
cants in fiscal year 2008 with that total skyrocketing to $300 million in 2009 with provisions in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act as well as another $120 million over fiscal years 2009 and 2010. Competition was underway nationwide for $60 million in fiscal-year 2011 EPA
National Clean Diesel Campaign funds, with a couple of deadlines staring down fleets as early as this month. Te EPA announced in November that $32 million
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Henry Albert, owner of Albert Transport, Inc. in Statesville, N.C., uses a hanky to demonstrate the near-zero emissions of the latest clean diesel engines used in Freightliner trucks and school buses during an event prior to the start of EPA’s Clean Diesel ‘10 event in October.
would be available in national grants and $18 million in funds awarded directly to states. Total costs of retrofits will be funded while 50 to 100 percent of idle reduction projects and 25 percent of the cost of a replacement bus that meets the 2010 emission standards are covered. Blubaugh added that matching funds identified in the application will rate highly. ■
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