US EPA announces West Coast diesel initiative

1 October 2004

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and a consortium of federal, state and local agencies and industry have launched the “West Coast Diesel Emissions Reductions Collaborative”—a $6 million initiative to reduce diesel emissions from trucks, ships, locomotives and other diesel sources along the West Coast.

More than 400 interests have been involved in the program, which will find voluntary solutions and provide funding to reduce diesel emissions in California, Oregon, Washington and Alaska. Interests from British Columbia and Mexico have also joined this effort.

Eight announcements were made yesterday in San Diego, Los Angeles, Bakersfield, Sacramento, San Francisco, Eugene OR, Portland and Seattle, to initiate a number of diesel emission reduction projects. Most of the total $6 million funding has been allocated for reduction of truck idle emissions by truck stop electrification or installing small auxiliary engines. $1.8 million has been budgeted for providing shore power to ships in the Seattle port to eliminate “hotelling” emissions. San Diego County Air Pollution Control District will start a $150,000 diesel emissions reduction demonstration project to investigate diesel retrofit technologies on heavy-duty trucks in the San Diego-Tijuana region.

The Collaborative’s goal is to ultimately secure $100 million through this public/private partnership to address and solve the diesel pollution problems in the west. Some of the most important diesel emission sources in the West Coast which were identified by the EPA are trucks traveling along the I-5 and I-99 corridors, ships and trains along the Pacific coast, agriculture equipment in California’s Central Valley, and construction equipment operating in such cities as Los Angeles, Fresno, Seattle and Portland.

Source: US EPA (press release)