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amed for its inventor, German engi- neer Rudolf Diesel in 1892, diesel fuel is refined from crude oil and biomass ma- terials. With gasoline technically being
the first fuel to hit the school bus industry, many directors were called early adopters of diesel in the 1970s and 1980s. In 1993, the U.S. Environ- mental Protection Agency began regulating diesel fuel sulfur levels, as prior to the agency stepping in, the fuel contained as much as 5,000 parts per million of sulfur, according to the EPA website. Regulation had only just begun. In 2006, EPA began to phase in more stringent regulations that continued to lower the amount of sulfur in diesel, naming it ultra-low sulfur diesel (ULSD). After 2010, all highway diesel fuel supplied to the market had to be ULSD and all new highway diesel vehicles manufactured and sold must use ULSD. The Diesel Technology Forum states on its website that that “the combination of ULSD fuel and advanced technology diesel engines means that the new school buses achieve near-zero levels of emissions compared to previous generations. Emissions of particulate matter and hydrocarbon and nitrogen oxide emissions are reduced to near-zero levels.” As the industry prepares for the 2027 EPA
emissions, many industry professionals point to how far diesel fuel has come. Plus, with new options, such as renewable diesel and biodiesel, diesel fuel has never been cleaner. “The current generation new diesel trucks are
more fuel-efficient and emit less than 1/60th the emissions of 2000 models,” stated Allen Schaef- fer, executive director of the Diesel Technology Forum via an email blast to members. “They’re already near zero emission for both oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and particulate matter (PM). Of all commercial trucks in operation today, 53 percent are of this newest generation, a number that has steadily grown since 2010.” Alfred Karam, the director of transportation
for Shenendehowa Central Schools in New York, agreed. “There’s not enough people in our profession that are speaking about diesel fuel powered buses, in terms of how far they’ve come technologically and how clean they are versus when the studies were done on them,” he said. “I don’t know anyone, at least here in the state of New York, at any level that has talked in a positive way about diesel buses.”
Karam said he runs the largest school district
in Saratoga County and did a presentation for New York legislators. “I’m talking about electric vehicles and the challenges that they’re going to be for school districts, and I did talk about the fact that diesel buses are much, much cleaner than they were say back in 2007 or 2010,” he explained. EPA once again seeks to tighten existing Phase 2 greenhouse gas emissions regulations for model-year 2027 engines and to set even more stringent Phase 3 rules starting in 2030. A proposal on the latter was not released at this writing. EPA’s final rule, “Control of Air Pollution From New Motor Vehicles: Heavy-Duty Engine and Vehicle Standards,” is set to be implemented on March 27. EPA’s goal is to reduce NOx emissions from
heavy-duty, on-highway engines, which is the first of three steps of the so-called Clean Trucks Plan, which includes some school buses. As previously reported at
stnonline.com, many of the public comments to EPA-HQ- OAR-2019-0055 support the tougher regulations that are set to cut NOx emissions by up to 82.5 percent in model year 2027-2030 engines, to 0.02 grams per brake/horsepower-hour, a level already achieved by CNG and propane engines. Meanwhile, Sen. Deb Fischer of Nebraska and 33 other Republicans signed a resolution to block the final rule from taking effect. The group is using the Congressional Review Act, which allows Congress to nullify a final rule issued by a federal agency and prevent a future rule that is “substantially similar” from being reintroduced without legislation. Fischer and her allies note that EPA’s own
estimates on the cost of future reductions in NOx, PM, hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide emissions are between $2,568 and $8,304 per vehicle. There has been no update on this CRA at this writing, but school bus OEMs that spoke to School Transportation News for this article said they are nonetheless getting ready to en- sure compliance with the 2027 emissions. Thomas Built Buses sees diesel as the bridge to the future of school busing, which will be electricity-powered. Daoud Chaaya, vice president of sales, aftermarket and marketing at Thomas, added that the OEM knows that ze- ro-emission technology will be the path forward for the industry, and society in general.
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