SAN FRANCISCO – As part of an initiative to significantly reduce diesel emissions in Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, and the U.S. Pacific Islands, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Regions 9 and 10 have announced a regional competition through the West Coast Collaborative, for more than $5 million to deploy verified or certified clean diesel technologies.

"We have to accelerate air quality improvements," said Deborah Jordan, Air Division director for the U.S. EPA's Pacific Southwest region. "One of the most cost-effective ways to do that is by modernizing our legacy diesel fleet. Through this initiative, EPA hopes to deploy the latest and cleanest technologies to reduce emissions from diesel engines, which will result in significant benefits to public health."

Through the National Clean Diesel Campaign, the EPA is awarding $49.2 million in grants nationwide to assist its eligible partners in building diesel emissions reduction programs across the country, with the goal of reducing emissions from the existing fleet of 11 million diesel engines.

The grants target school and transit buses, medium- and heavy-duty trucks, marine engines, locomotives, and non-road engines, such as those used in construction or agriculture. Grant recipients can use a variety of cost effective emissions reduction strategies, such as EPA-verified retrofit and idle-reduction technologies, EPA-certified engine upgrades, vehicle or equipment replacements, cleaner fuels, and creation of innovative clean diesel financing programs.

The closing date and time for submission of proposals is Tuesday, July 1, at 5 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time. EPA Regions 9 and 10 anticipate awarding six to nine assistance agreements from this announcement, with awards ranging from $500,000 to $1 million.

Additional information is available at: http://www.epa.gov/region10/cleandiesel.html.