The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s fiscal year 2015 budget proposal calls for eliminating funding for a popular program that since 2008 has helped truckers buy equipment to reduce diesel emissions, EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said last week.
It was the second year in a row that the administration has attempted to end the Diesel Emission Reduction Act grant program, which last year allocated $20 million in spending to purchase emissions technologies and diesel trucks, school buses and off-road equipment.
EPA’s proposed budget this year totals $7.9 billion, a 3.7% decrease over last year.
“Domestic spending constraints have really challenged EPA’s ability to operate within our budget numbers,” McCarthy said at a March 4 telephone news conference.
Last year’s attempt to cut the DERA program, which requires matching dollars for grantees, was unsuccessful.
“It’s déjà vu all over again,” said Allen Schaeffer, executive director of the Diesel Technology Forum, a nonprofit group that advocates for diesel engines. “It’s a perplexing kind of thing because the agency has some very significant focus and priorities on things like ports. It’s hard to square that up with the idea that this highly successful bipartisan program has been zeroed out again.”
