| Kansas City, KS – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has awarded $999,460 to the $1.7 million Missouri Department of Natural Resources “Clean Up Missouri” Project to replace, retrofit and re-power 196 school buses and nine switch locomotives throughout the state.
MDNR will partner with St. Louis Regional Clean Cities, Mid-America Regional Council in Kansas City, Ozarks Center for Sustainable Solutions in Springfield and the Southeast Missouri Regional Planning Commission (SEMO RPC) to reduce diesel emissions in the state. The project will include the replacement of three school buses in Joplin.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has awarded $50 million nationally for clean diesel projects as part of its ongoing campaign to reduce harmful emissions in the air and better protect people's health. These efforts will replace, retrofit or re-power more than 8,000 older school buses, trucks, locomotives, vessels, and other diesel powered machines. Reducing emissions from existing diesels provides cost-effective public health and environmental benefits while supporting green jobs at manufacturers, dealerships and businesses across the country.
Diesel engines emit 7.3 million tons of smog-forming nitrogen oxides (NOx) and 333,000 tons of soot annually. Diesel pollution is linked to thousands of premature deaths, hundreds of thousands of asthma attacks and millions of lost work days. While EPA's standards significantly reduce emissions from newly manufactured engines, clean diesel projects funded through these grants will work to address the more than 11 million older diesel engines that continue to emit higher levels of harmful pollution.
This article was condensed from one submitted by David Bryan of the EPA.
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