Seeking to lessen the harmful effects of diesel pollution in Rhode Island, state lawmakers are advocating measures to curb diesel emissions by targeting older diesel-burning vehicles, the worst offenders.
The Diesel Emissions Reduction Act, introduced by Rep. Peter T. Ginaitt, D-Warwick, and Sen. Paul E. Moura, D-East Providence, would set a timeline for reducing diesel emissions from school buses, garbage trucks and other heavy-duty diesel vehicles owned or contracted by the state.
The program would be paid for in part through surcharges on the sale of older diesel vehicles, penalties for noncompliance and other fees. Federal funding for diesel emissions reduction is also available, said Denise Parrillo, a campaign organizer for Clean Water Action, an environmental organization that helped draft the legislation.
“The time has come to clean up diesel vehicles and make Rhode Island a cleaner, healthier place to live and work,” Moura said in a news release. “We can’t continue to sit back and allow diesel pollution to harm our environment and our health, and we must set strict pollution standards to protect ourselves and our children.”
Rhode Islanders who commute to work – including children who ride school buses – are at risk of developing respiratory and cardiovascular diseases as a result of inhaling diesel pollution, which contains sulfur particles and other toxic substances, Parrillo said.
Diesel emissions also contribute to problems associated with global warming, because carbon particles released into the atmosphere when diesel is burned settle on polar ice sheets, coating them with black soot that absorbs sunlight and speeds melting of the ice, she said.
Each year in Rhode Island, diesel pollution causes 50 premature deaths, 80 nonfatal heart attacks, 900 asthma attacks, 1,400 respiratory conditions in children and 5,500 missed days of work, according to a 2005 study of diesel air pollution conducted by Clean Air Task Force, an advocacy group in Boston.
Aging school buses are among the worst diesel polluters, often pumping dangerous levels of diesel exhaust into the passenger cabin, Parrillo said.
“Children are being poisoned going to school,” she said.
Neither First Student Inc. nor Laidlaw Transit Inc., two school bus companies with multiple contracts in Rhode Island, returned calls seeking comment. Also, a spokesman for Waste Management, one of the largest waste management companies operating in the state, declined to comment.
If it becomes law, the diesel emissions reduction program would be overseen by the R.I. Department of Environmental Management. The law would require all heavy-duty diesel vehicles owned and operated by the state to modify their engines – known as a “retrofit” – to emit less exhaust, and to use cleaner, ultra-low-sulfur diesel.
Diesel-powered garbage trucks and recycling vehicles built from 1994 to 2006 that are leased or contracted by the state also would need to be retrofitted, which would reduce pollution emitted from the tailpipes of those vehicles by 85 percent, according to the bill’s sponsors.
To protect children, all school buses built in 1993 or earlier would be phased out of use. Newer school buses would require retrofits, which the state would pay for if the buses operate in Rhode Island for at least four years.
The law would complement a new federal law that reduces emissions on all new diesel engines by 90 percent. But because diesel engines are well engineered, older diesel engines not covered by the federal law will still be on the road for years, perhaps decades, Parrillo said.
Some cities and towns in Rhode Island already are moving to reduce their diesel emissions, including Warwick, which last spring became the first municipality in the state to retrofit its 62 school buses. Warwick also began fueling its buses with ultra-low-sulfur diesel and renewable biodiesel fuel.
The city paid for the retrofits, which can cost upwards of $2,000 per vehicle, with a $350,000 grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under a program that funds clean diesel projects in the Northeast. Cranston is also retrofitting some of its school buses with grant money from the EPA.
The R.I. Public Transit Authority has retrofitted 28 buses and will be retrofitting more as part of its maintenance plan, said spokeswoman Karen Mensel. Another 60 of the 229 buses are newer and already conform with the higher standards. In addition, since 2002, RIPTA’s buses have run on ultra-low-sulfur diesel, except for 25 buses that run on natural gas, she said.
Ginaitt said he felt the time was right to target older vehicles that are most responsible for diesel pollution because the cost of retrofitting their engines has come down significantly in recent years.
But Ginaitt acknowledged the legislation could face opposition from stakeholders in the private sector who contract with the state.
“I’m sure we’re going to hear from some people that it may be an onerous addition to business, and we need to factor that in,” he said.
