Long Island Congressman Steve Israel’s Leadership shows others in Congress what it means to “walk the walk” in shaping a Healthy Secure Energy Future.
New York, NY (July 6, 2007) – “At a time of escalating concerns about global warming, US energy dependence on foreign oil, and about the asthma health crisis in our country’s vehicle-polluted cities, we are thrilled to see Long Island Congressman Steve Israel stepping out front as a leader,” said Joanna Underwood, President of the national environmental organization, Energy Vision. “As a member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water, he pressed successfully for a major increase in support for the Department of Energy’s Clean Cities Program, the most effective program so far in addressing all these problems by putting alternative fuel vehicles on our roadways.”
The Energy and Water Appropriations bill for FY 2008, passed by the House, included greatly expanded funding for Clean Cities – a whopping increase of more than $6 million — from the amount proposed in the Administration’s budget of $9,593,000 to $15,896,000. The Committee report also specified that these funds be used for technologies and programs reducing use of petroleum by working with local Clean Cities coalitions and their stakeholders, industry partners, fuel providers, and end users.
What $6.3 Million Could Do
“While this amount could be applied to many types of light and heavy duty vehicle sectors, devoting it to replacement of old heavy duty diesel refuse trucks with new natural gas trucks, would be one of the best investments in moving toward the clean air, energy independence, and greenhouse reduction goals that millions of Americans want,” Underwood stated.
Diesel refuse trucks are one of the most concentrated sources of air pollution in most US cities. Unlike many other trucks or buses, they travel every residential street — stopping and starting and pouring their emissions onto virtually every door step. They are among the heaviest users of petroleum-derived fuels, getting less than 3 miles per gallon, and with every gallon of fuel they burn, they emit more than 22 pounds of CO2.)
$6 million in new funding a year for three years could fund replacement of about 100 of the old diesel trucks annually with the world’s cleanest heavy-duty refuse collection trucks, those powered by environmentally-friendly natural gas. These trucks meet not only the U.S. EPA’s 2007 standards for reducing health-threatening nitrogen oxide and particulate emissions but also the more stringent 2010 nitrogen oxide standards. They also reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about 11 to 23 percent compared to diesel, according to a study of natural gas engines just completed for the California Air Resources Board.
“Over three years, replacement of 100 trucks a year with new natural gas trucks would eliminate use of more than 5.3 million gallons of diesel fuel, cut particulate and nitrogen oxide pollution by more than 1,500 Tons, and reduce greenhouse gases (CO2) by 13 to 27 million pounds,” states Underwood. “Further, every one of those new trucks, capable of using a gas fuel, will soon be able to take advantage of even better domestic fuel choices: of clean renewable bio-methane fuel, which is beginning to be produced from the greenhouse gases that now escape from the many thousands of landfills and sewage plants and, in the longer term, hydrogen.”
“The technology is there to shape a healthy secure transportation/energy future,” adds Underwood, “and investing these additional millions in it today (compared to the billions being invested in war to hang onto US sources of imported oil) is just the beginning in meeting the ethical responsibility we have to our children. We congratulate Congressman Israel on showing the kind of bold leadership we need in Congress. We hope many others in Congress will join him.”