Despite significant improvements in air quality over the past two decades, the San Joaquin Valley’s unique topography and meteorology continue to make it difficult to meet federal air quality standards. Heavy-duty trucks and other mobile sources are the largest contributor to the Valley’s pollution challenges. While these mobile sources of pollution are regulated by the California Air Resources Board and the Federal EPA, the local Valley Air District has a variety of truck and infrastructure incentive programs to assist the Valley’s business and agriculture community in upgrading to cleaner technology.
Recently, the Valley Air District Governing Board took action to accept over $1.2 million in additional federal funding under the Environmental Protection Agency’s highly competitive Diesel Emission Reduction Act (DERA). Allocated funding supports the replacement of in-use heavy-duty diesel trucks with zero or near zero-emission trucks.
This additional funding brings the total grant amount to $4 million and will fund the replacement of older, high-polluting class 7-8 trucks with new trucks equipped with zero or near-zero emission engine technology. With this additional funding, the total grant is expected to result in the reduction of more than 19 tons of NOx and PM.
This funding complements other Valley Air District incentive programs aimed at reducing emissions from mobile sources, including but not limited to:
Other classes of heavy-duty trucks;
Yard trucks;
Ag utility terrain vehicles;
Forklifts;
Off-road mobile equipment such as agricultural equipment, tractors, backhoes, excavators, etc.;
Infrastructure for stations providing electric battery charging and hydrogen fueling of heavy-duty vehicles;
Hybrid, plug-in hybrid and fully electric light-duty passenger vehicles.
“Investments such as these, allow significant progress to be made in addressing the unique challenges the Valley faces in air quality through the replacement of heavy-duty diesel trucks with zero or near zero-emission trucks,” stated Samir Sheikh, Executive Director and Air Pollution Control Officer of the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District. “The Valley Air District is committed to finding local, state and federal funds to assist our business and agriculture sectors in their transition to cleaner technologies.”
To date, the District’s Truck Replacement Incentive Program has successfully administered over $318 million aimed at replacing more than 6,300 Valley-based heavy-duty trucks with new, cleaner trucks. Such effort has resulted in the reduction of more than 30,500 tons of NOx and PM.
Interested heavy-duty truck owners can call the District at 559-230-5800 for assistance applying or get started at www.valleyair.org/truckreplacement.
The Valley Air District covers eight counties including San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Merced, Madera, Fresno, Kings, Tulare and San Joaquin Valley air basin portions of Kern. For additional information about the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District, visit www.valleyair.org or call 559-230-6000.
