Senate EPW committee backs diesel retrofit grants amendment

A bill to help retrofit existing diesel-fueled engines to reduce emissions recently passed the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee while an amendment of the same nature added to the Energy Bill (H.R. 6) remains up for negotiations as part of the House and Senate conference committee deliberations.

The bill (S. 1265), the Diesel Emissions Reduction Act of 2005, was sponsored by Senator George Voinovich (R-OH), who chairs the Subcommittee on clean air, climate change and nuclear safety. It authorizes $1 billion in voluntary grants and loans administered by federal and state agencies over five years for retrofitting and replacing diesel engines.

Voinovich said last month that the Act will help the nation’s 495 and Ohio’s 38 counties in non-attainment meet new ozone and particulate matter standards. New Environmental Protection Agency diesel fuel and engine emission regulations for buses, freight trucks and non-road equipment will help reduce 2000 levels by more than 80%. The Act passed by the Senate would apply to diesel fuel engines predating those new regulations.

The Senate last month voted 92-1 to amend the Diesel Emissions Reduction Act to the Energy Bill.