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EPA pumps $26 million green stimulus into Southern California

October 1st, 2009, 1:38 pm · 11 Comments · posted by

Diesel pollution from busy sea ports, train engines, buses and construction machinery will be slashed and green jobs created with more than $26 million in federal stimulus funding, the U.S. EPA announced Thursday with the busy Port of Long Beach as a backdrop. greenstimss

The funding, under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, includes millions to retrofit trucks and school buses in the South Coast Air Basin, which includes Orange County.

The funding will “send a powerful signal to the world that we can ensure economic strength and protect our health and our environment,” U.S. EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson told the group of public officials, agency employees and reporters. “We don’t have to choose between a green economy and a green environment.”

Diesel pollution results in more than 2,000 hospitalizations and 50,000 cases of asthma and respiratory illness across the state each year, EPA says. Much of the funding announced Thursday is aimed at cutting diesel pollution in the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles.

And because some of that bad air blows into Orange County, the expected pollution cuts should help clean the county’s air as well.

“Some of the goods are moving on trucks through Orange County,” said Barry Wallerstein, executive officer of the South Coast Air Quality Management District in Diamond Bar, who attended the event. “Every truck converted to natural gas or clean diesel is a truck less pollution for all of  Southern California.”

The funding includes:

  • $4 million for research on technology to create cleaner-burning heavy duty trucks for the air district.
  • More than $4 million to replace or retrofit diesel engines for 112 pieces of cargo-handling equipment at the Port of Long Beach.
  • $1.9 million to replace or retrofit 27 such pieces of equipment at the Port of Los Angeles.
  • $8.8 million to “repower” at least eight switch-yard locomotives in Southern California.
  • $1.7 million to the state Air Resources Board to retrofit school buses in the region, awarded in April. Some of the funding was used to retrofit five school buses in the Ocean View School District in Huntington Beach.
  • Nearly $1 million to cut emissions from a variety of types of construction equipment, including tractors, excavators and forklifts.

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     11 Comments

    • popcorn says:
      October 1, 2009 at 4:03 pm

      It’s sad that it’s come to this. Taxing the populous to further the secularist left religion called green.

      • AC says:
        October 1, 2009 at 4:34 pm

        yup

        • jimmydee says:
          October 1, 2009 at 4:56 pm

          Typically young know-nothings who have been fed a steady diet of Green propaganda since their Sesame Street days.

          Savvy, knowledgeable reporters would point out how much cleaner things are now than 30, 40 or 50 years ago, even with double or triple the number of cars. And that IS a good thing.

          But lack any perspective. Ask your average under-30 idiot on the street and all you hear is a torrent of nonsense about how we are killing Mother Earth.

          • nikons says:
            October 2, 2009 at 9:29 am

            so Jimmydee knows more about the health of the planet than the thousands of scientists studying every corner of the globe for the last 50 years and reporting we are on the verge of a major environmental disaster. thanks for your wisdom jimmydee.

      • Sidney says:
        October 1, 2009 at 4:54 pm

        Yeah, because life would be better if we continue to pollute and destroy God’s creation.

    • nikons says:
      October 1, 2009 at 4:47 pm

      popcorn
      really? i have read a lot of moronic comments on these pages, but you now head the list. At least you took 3 minutes away from your foxnews watching today, thats a start .

    • OC4truth says:
      October 1, 2009 at 6:26 pm

      Yes, the air is a lot cleaner than it used to be, but those diesel vehicles are still pretty bad. And they don’t even measure the impact on people who are right behind them–seemingly just the overall impact on the air quality.

      Also, don’t know how many of you have ventured down the Long Beach freeway from the 405 into the port area or back again. It is full of trucks and the breathing isn’t good.

      I’m glad I live in Saddleback Valley and that we are above a lot of the smog. Often when I head up to Irvine and beyond I can just see the pall of smog down below.

      I’m not a radical environmentalist, but we have polluted a lot of stuff. its pretty bad when there are warnings about eating too much fish from the vast oceans because of mercury toxins in the water that have gotten into the fish in levels high enough to be a concern.

    • OC4truth says:
      October 1, 2009 at 6:29 pm

      Of course some of the green initiative is wasted as Representative Campbell pointed out that they are planning to spend I think its stimulus money to green up the Ziggarut Federal Building in Laguna Niguel. Over a million but reports are that they are likely to tear it down because it needs to be retrofitted to meet standards which isn’t cost effective. So I hope someone wakes up and transfers that money to say schools to maybe green them up and cut their energy costs or something.

    • Tolens says:
      October 2, 2009 at 8:38 am

      The Germans have high efficiency, lower polluting diesel engines. We can’t import them because of the Greens’ lobbying. Their are too many diesel trucks on the road. It would be more efficient to move more freight by rail. But the tax and regulatory structure encourages the growth of the trucking industry supported by the Teamsters union lobby.

      Liberals create the problem, then want more money to solve it.

    • Emily says:
      October 7, 2009 at 10:24 am

      The “green stimulus” is a very interesting debate topic. I enjoyed reading your article and the comments. Thanks!

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