Take Action to Clean Up Dirty Diesel Engines!
What you can do to improve the air quality for yourself and your family:
1. Contact your local school district or school board.
- Encourage them to adopt an idling reduction policy to save young lungs and conserve fuel. Sample policy.
- Encourage your school district to
use cleaner
fuels and install pollution controls
on the fleet. Diesel emission fact sheet.
- Encourage your school district to
apply for grants (such as the Ohio EPA Clean School Bus Retrofit Grant Program) to retrofit their fleets.
2. Contact your local public transit fleet.
- Encourage the fleet to use cleaner
fuels, reduce idling, and retrofit
their fleet with pollution controls.
- Learn more about pollution control technology by reading our fleet manager solutions fact sheet.
3. Contact your local and state governments.
- Let your city and state officials know that diesel pollution is a problem in your community and solutions are available!
Urge them to adopt policies that will reduce diesel particulate matter by 40 percent in 2010, 75 percent in 2015, and 85 percent in 2020. If all states achieved these goals, 100,000 lives could be saved between now and 2030. See the Clean Air Task Force's Report Diesel and Health in America (PDF) for more information.
These goals can be accomplished by a combination of:
- Adopting a package of options for reducing diesel exhaust including:
- Retrofits accomplished by replacing mufflers with an optimal mix of filters or oxidation catalysts depending on vehicle age and type;
- Closed crankcase ventilation systems to eliminate engine exhaust from penetrating the cabins of school and transit buses
- Engine rebuild and replacement requirements;
- Contract specifications requiring cleanup of trucks and construction equipment used in public works projects.
- Adopting diesel cleanup measures as federally-enforceable requirements in State Implementation Plans (SIPs) for the attainment of the fine particle and ozone air quality standards;
- Funding the Ohio Diesel Emission Reduction Grant program to provide money for diesel equipment owners to retrofit, replace or rebuild high-polluting diesel engines;
- Adopting and enforcing idle reduction ordinances and legislation for public and private fleets.
4. Contact your federal lawmakers.
- Email or call your U.S. Senators and Members of Congress to encourage federal legislation to provide funding for cleanup of municipal and state fleets.
- For help finding the email, phone number, or address of your U.S. Senator or Representative, visit www.vote-smart.org.
5. Become part of the OEC!
- Become an OEC member and/or sign up for our action alerts and e-newsletters to keep current on the latest diesel and environmental news.
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