January 14, 2008

The Philadelphia Diesel Difference - Working Group Meeting
Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC)
190 North Independence Mall West,
8th Floor,
Philadelphia, PA 19106

IN ATTENDANCE:
Eric Cheung, Clean Air Council
Rick Crawford, Norfolk Southern
Fred Cummings, City of Philadelphia Division of Aviation
Don Graab, Norfolk Southern
Sean Greene, DVRPC
Darlene Heep, City of Philadelphia Law Department
Thomas Huynh, City of Philadelphia, Air Management Services
Sean Jacobs, Clean Air Council
Jack LeBeau, CAC/DEP
Lisa Magee, Philadelphia Regional Port Authority
Joanne Maxwell, Amtrak
Urszula Miezio, Johnson Matthey
Patrick O'Neill, City of Philadelphia Law Department
Howard Pearlman, Drexel University
Alison Riley, City of Philadelphia, Air Management Services
Jack Schweitzer, Amtrak
Dan Snowden, PennDOT
Barbara Wilson, Krapf Bus Co.
Darrell Wilson, Norfolk Southern
Dennis R. Winters, Philadelphia Clean Cities

MINUTES TAKEN BY:
Eric Cheung

INTRODUCTIONS/ANNOUNCEMENTS
Tom opened the meeting hoping everyone had a happy new year.

Alison reported that the Mid-Atlantic Diesel Collaborative Sector work groups were starting their calls again. She is now coordinating the Urban Fleets Sector Work Group. Construction, Goods Movement and School Bus are the other Work Groups, although the School Bus group is inactive until funding is announced. The Work Groups will have quarterly conference calls this year.

Alison noted that she participated in a "Sustainable Skylines" meeting with EPA last month and will meet again later this week to discuss environmental steps that the City could consider taking as part of this initiative. Alison said she is still waiting on language for the proposed marine rule to control sulfur content in fuel used by ships within 200 miles of a U.S. shore.

Alison said AMS will be presenting at the City's Zoning Board Commission later this month. AMS will talk about the health impact of highway diesel exposure and will propose that the Zoning Board consider set backs from roadways. Alison requested that PDD members suggest other recommendations AMS could offer the Board concerning diesel emissions.

In other news, Alison reported that $50 million in Diesel Emission Reduction Act funding has been appropriated by Congress and she expects an RFP announcement soon from EPA Region 3. She also noted that California's vehicle greenhouse gas regulation has been given a "denial of waiver" by EPA, which means it cannot take effect as an alternative to the federal vehicle emission standards. California is suing EPA over this denial. Alison noted that work to retrofit the City's fire trucks has begun. Lastly, Alison mentioned that she and Eric had attended PennFuture's Next Great City meeting to discuss one of its recommendations concerning retrofitting city diesel vehicles.

PHILADELPHIA DIESEL DIFFERENCE ACTIVITIES UPDATE:
Eric said he will be traveling to Allentown in February to testify on the PADEP's new anti-idling regulation at a public hearing. Concerning the Next Great City meeting, Eric expounded on the recommendations he and Alison made for the project. Alison relayed all of the specific actions taken by the City to address diesel emissions to the Next Great City diesel subgroup members. The subgroup discussed the following action steps: 1) To the extent possible, the City needs to facilitate greater cooperation with and responsiveness from the Parking Authority and SEPTA. 2) The City should continue to implement clean diesel technology using available funds and to use those funds to leverage other grants. 3) A citywide campaign to raise awareness of Philadelphia's anti-idling ordinance ought to be implemented. 4) City administration should push for the implementation of clean diesel language in procurement agreements relating to new construction projects.

Eric reported that he met with two waste hauler fleets as a result of the recent mailing that went out. Both of these fleets signed commitment forms. He will be educating a class of Wissahickon Charter Students about diesel emissions and how to clean them up, making use of U.S. EPA's "Magic School Bus Gets Cleaned Up" book. Lastly, Eric said he will be participating in the upcoming Green Airport air quality subcommittee meeting later this month.

COMMITTEE UPDATES:
Sean Jacobs briefed the Working Group on the latest with the Port Environmental Task Force. He noted that the Port group started out as a subcommittee to PDD, but has since expanded to become its own stakeholder group. It has held numerous stakeholder meetings and has hosted two workshops. It has overseen the retrofit of diesel-powered equipment at Tioga and Packer port terminals. Sean said the Port Environmental Task Force is now being funded through a Fish and Wildlife Foundation grant, which focuses the group's efforts on stormwater management. With the availability of this grant, the Port group will continue holding quarterly meetings. The next meeting will be held in February. The most recent workshop organized by the Port group centered on stormwater management and was a success. Sean said he has a proposal for funding to host a third workshop focusing on environmental management systems at the port.

Patrick O'Neill asked Sean whether the Port group is still doing work on air quality given that it is operating under a stormwater management grant. Sean noted that he applied for EPA Region 3 Ports funding to do an air emissions inventory. The Port Task Force is prioritizing recommendations for environmental actions at the Port, including those that would improve air quality. Eric noted that with these recommendations in place, the Port Task Force could then apply to upcoming funding opportunities to help pay for them.

Lastly, Sean mentioned that two of the three Port reports that the Task Force developed under its initial EPA CARE grant are available on its website: http://www.cleanair.org/greenports/ .

GRANT UPDATES:
Eric said that the Council will apply for Level 2 EPA CARE funding for its work with the Ports Task Force. If awarded this new, larger amount of funding would be used to carry out recommendations developed by the Port Task Force.

ONE MINUTE UPDATES:
Dan Snowden asked what the City and EPA's feelings are on the proposed public works procurement language incorporating clean diesel. Pat replied that there is no reason why the City cannot do this. Dan said he still would like an opinion from either PADEP or EPA saying such language is legal.

Darlene Heep said she will get information to PennDOT's legal counsel on other governmental entities that have required similar procurement language. Darleen then asked Eric if smaller private, non-governmental operations can apply to EPA for diesel retrofit funding. Eric responded that if they cannot, PDD can apply on their behalf.

Lisa Magee reported that she is working with the South Jersey Port Corporation to brainstorm ideas for environmental and energy efficiency improvement at the Port.

Pat requested that PDD quantify emission benefits from all the fleets it has helped to retrofit. As part of the process, he suggested that PDD send out a survey to its stakeholders requesting information on retrofit projects they have completed.

Dennis Winters introduced himself as the new Greater Philadelphia Clean Cities Coordinator. He is busy working on year-end reports.

Fred Cummings said the airport is adding three more hybrids to its fleet.

Barbara Wilson reviewed Krapf's recent success with school bus diesel retrofits: more than 30 vehicles retrofitted in Great Valley's fleet, more than 30 in Chester County Intermediate Unit's fleet, and more than 80 vehicles in West Chester's fleet. All of these retrofits were made possible through funds awarded to Krapf. Barbara added that a number of Chester County school districts partnered with the Energy Cooperative of Pennsylvania to apply for PA Alternative Fuels Incentive Grant to cover their purchase of biodiesel fuel. The Biodiesel Coalition was awarded $300,000 to provide enough fuel for two years. Great Valley, Kennett Square, West Chester, Coatesville and Downingtown are the school districts involved. Now the greater part of Chester County's school buses are running on biodiesel.

Jack LeBeau seconded Pat's request that PDD quantify emission reductions it has helped bring about.

Howard Pearlman introduced himself as a faculty member of Drexel University working on research and development relating to diesel emissions. He wondered if anyone is working on biofuels for home heating. Dennis answered that the Energy Cooperative Association of PA sells biofuels for home heating.

MONTHLY PRESENTATION:
Don Graab from Norfolk Southern gave a presentation on Genset locomotives. He began by explaining the three categories of train locomotives:

Road (intercity travel) - travels at up to 70 mph
Yard (sorts freight cars) - travels at up to 15 mph
Local (transports freight locally) - travels at up to 50 mph

Don explained that Genset technology is applicable to yard and local freight.

A typical diesel locomotive is 16 cylinder, 1500-4500 horsepower, 1000 rpm. The diesel engine turns a generator which provides electricity to power 4 or 6 drive motors. Norfolk has 1,350 yard and local locomotives with an average age of 27.4 years. Don estimates it would cost $1.8 billion to replace them.

Genset technology was developed in California in response to actions taken by the California Air Resources Board. It replaces one large diesel engine with multiple oversized truck engines. Truck engines are already cleaner than the traditional large locomotive diesel, because of the regulations that have come out in recent years directed at highway diesel vehicles. A Genset uses 3 sets of these smaller diesel engines and generators. It is desirable to retrofit them onto existing train locomotives.

Four companies are currently producing Gensets. The designs for all of them use 3 diesel engines of up to 700 horsepower. These engines then feed a common electrical buss which powers the drive motors. In addition to its reliance on cleaner diesel engines, Gensets employ auto engine stop-start, use antifreeze for their engine coolant and have higher levels of wheel-to-rail adhesion.

Genset engines will enable train locomotives to meet new EPA emission standards, said Don. He briefly explained the regulatory scheme developed by EPA. Tier 0 standards apply to locomotive engines when they are rebuilt. Tier II standards apply to all new locomotive engines sold today. Tiers III and IV will apply to new locomotives as well when they take effect at a future date. Genset engines meet Tier III emission standards. He cautioned attendees that different tiers for railroad are not the same as the tiers that EPA uses for highway engines. In sum, Don described Genset technology as taking innovations from on-road truck engines and putting them into train engines. He also added that 77% of Norfolk's locomotive fleet meets the appropriate tier regulations.

Don said there are fuel savings associated with Gensets, maybe as much as 25-30%, but these savings are not enough to enable purchasers to recover their additional costs spent on employing this new technology.

When asked about using Genset with road locomotives, Don said it would be impractical. Such vehicles spend too much time at their fullest horsepower potential and would need 6 Gensets to properly power them. There is not enough room to place all these Gensets on the locomotive and the cost would be prohibitive. Moreover, it would probably require more fuel to run that many Gensets than is needed for one big diesel engine.

Turning to hybrid technologies, Don said that "Green Goat" was developed by Railpower. This product uses battery power to help propel the locomotive. Unfortunately, tests of this technology were not promising as it resulted in fires. Don said that while Green Goat may not have panned out, perhaps a different hybrid locomotive technology could be developed in the future.

Norfolk currently has four Gensets in its fleet and it plans to expand modestly depending on the availability of public funding. At most Norfolk would probably only add 6 to 7 Gensets a year. Each one costs roughly $1.5 million.

NEXT MEETING AND LOCATION:

The next meeting will be held February 11, 2008 at DVRPC. Alison closed the meeting by asking members what the future of PDD ought to be. Are there any issues it should be addressing? She said she would add this topic as an agenda for next month's meeting. Pat said this may be a good time to assess what PDD has already accomplished. He requested that PDD document its accomplishments by estimating emission reductions and also going back to fleets the group reached out to in the beginning to see if more are willing to address diesel issues. Pat would especially like to see some communication with the area universities, since their diesel vehicles are so visible.