Pat Brennan, Green OC, October 1, 2009
Yesterday at the Port of Long Beach, US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa Jackson announced more than $26 million in federal stimulus funding, including millions to retrofit trucks and school buses in the South Coast Air Basin.
Much of the funding, authorized under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, is aimed at cutting diesel pollution in the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles. Diesel pollution results in more than 2,000 hospitalizations and 50,000 cases of asthma and respiratory illness across the state each year, EPA says.
The funding includes:
- $4 million for research on technology to create cleaner-burning heavy duty trucks for the air district
- more than $4 million to replace or retrofit diesel engines for 112 pieces of cargo-handling equipment at the Port of Long Beach
- $1.9 million to replace or retrofit 27 such pieces of equipment at the Port of Los Angeles
- $8.8 million to “repower” at least eight switch-yard locomotives in Southern California
- $1.7 million to the state Air Resources Board to retrofit school buses in the region, awarded in April
- nearly $1 million to cut emissions from a variety of types of construction equipment, including tractors, excavators and forklifts
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