March 20, 2006

Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC)
190 North Independence Mall West,
8th Floor,
Philadelphia, PA 19106

IN ATTENDANCE:
Madina Alharazim, Amtrak
Brett Alkins, Johnson Matthey Catalysts
Kevin Benson, Cummins Power Systems/Fleetguard Emission
Jim Black, Clean Air Council
Ken Brown, University of Pennsylvania
Jim Cassizzi, PA Turnpike
Eric Cheung, Clean Air Council
Fred Cummings, Philadelphia International Airport
Sean Greene, DVRPC
Mark Dann, Clean Air Council
Joseph Grinkewicz, School District Of Philadelphia, Transportation
Peg Hanna, NJ DEP
Jack LeBeau, EHRF
Lisa Magee, Philadelphia Regional Port Authority
Susan McDowell, EPA Region III
Robert Neff, PA Turnpike
Elissa Rune, Clean Air Council
Kelly Sheckler, EPA Region III
Alison Tracy, AMS
Barbara Wilson, Krapf Bus Company

MINUTES TAKEN BY:
Alison Tracy

INTRODUCTIONS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Eric welcomed the group and noted that our chair, Morris Fine, is out for several weeks on medical leave and that Eric will be chairing the entire meeting today. The group wishes Morris a speedy recovery. He also noted that the format for today's meeting will be slightly different than usual since today's speaker, Peg Hanna, has a time conflict this afternoon and must leave early. He also informed the group that the latest newsletter is ready and that copies are available from Eric. He also made available copies of the City of Philadelphia's Hybrid Electric Vehicle Procurement preference which was recently passed by City Council. Several PDD members testified at the hearings for said policy.

MONTHLY PRESENTATION:
Peg Hanna gave a presentation detailing efforts in New Jersey to reduce diesel emissions. Prompted by localized health risks and the fact that 13 counties in New Jersey are in nonattainment for PM2.5, the state passed a law in September 2005 mandating (contingent on funding availability) retrofits for the legacy fleet. Previously, mobile sources were relatively uncontrolled compared to stationary sources, and trends showed that the incremental cost of further reductions to stationary sources was rising. The new law focuses on PM rather than NOx because control technologies for NOx are less well developed than for PM and health risks are not as well-defined. The law addresses pre-model year 2007 vehicles that cause high levels of localized emissions, such as bus fleets, as well as public vehicles that can be easily regulated. Using EPA's reduction calculator, the state estimates that 150 premature deaths will be avoided and $1.4 billion will be saved once the new regulations are in place. The state has a 9-month time frame to implement the policy, and is currently working on a proposal in consultation with other state agencies. Forms for fleets will be streamlined to avoid processing backlogs as much as possible, and fleets that must retrofit will be reimbursed for the cost of parts and installation. The retrofits will be paid for with portions of the state's corporate business tax, a fund which has been underutilized previously. The total funding amounts to $14 million for 10 years. Funding is already authorized but will need to be appropriated each year by the legislature.

Some of the funding will be used specifically for school buses. Although these fleets comprise a relatively small portion of the state's total diesel emissions, children are especially sensitive to the ambient emissions present in school bus cabins. Crank case closure technology will be implemented on a large number of school buses to reduce risk for schoolchildren.

Along with the retrofit portion of the law, New Jersey will be requiring nonroad engines to use Ultra-Low Sulfur Diesel (ULSD) before the Federal mandate kicks in, so long as research shows that the policy will not cause undue strain on ULSD supplies. The state also has an anti-idling law limiting vehicle idling to 3 minutes, which has been on the books for two decades but has recently become more well-known thanks to a publicity campaign launched by NJDEP. The state has sold 3000 signs (at cost) to local companies to help them reduce idling in their parking lots and loading docks, and to exempt them from being fined if someone is caught idling on their property in excess of 3 minutes. DEP is also working to eliminate exceptions to the idling rule and is getting more local police forces involved, giving them an opportunity to collect revenue from the law.

Finally, the state is engaged in several Truck Stop Electrification projects. One in Paulsboro has already been completed, and another in Bordentown will be breaking ground soon. Two others are slated for sites in Northern New Jersey.

Peg answered a number of questions from the group regarding the retrofit project and other state policies. She said that fleet owners can hire consultants to help initiate retrofit projects, but that the state will not pay for the additional costs above retrofits and installation. The law applies only to vehicles with seating for 10 or more passengers. ULSD nonroad requirements, when they go into effect, will apply to both sales and usage of the fuel. When asked about vehicle calculations, Peg was unsure about how those would be done. She went into more detail about how inspections of buses and other vehicles would be conducted under the new law versus the current inspection policies. She also explained that the state is currently obtaining a legal opinion on whether funding can be used for replacement and repowering or just for retrofits.

The New Jersey law will be the most comprehensive state-level retrofit mandate in the U.S., once in effect. The law applies to all counties, not just those in nonattainment. Hearings on the law will be held in the summer of 2006, and the law would take effect 6 months afterwards. The corporate business tax revenue used to fund these projects had originally been earmarked for environmental programs such as Superfund site cleanups, but due to the difficulty in initiating Superfund projects, much of the money went unused each year and it was decided that the funds could be more effectively used on diesel projects. The funding was authorized by voters on a ballot initiative that passed by a 6% margin.

PHILADELPHIA DIESEL DIFFERENCE ACTIVITIES UPDATE:
Eric recounted the most recent diesel-related events, starting with the Mid-Atlantic Diesel Kickoff on February 28th. Several PDD members presented there, namely Brett Alkins and Arleen Shulman. Regional collaboratives will in the future be a funding vehicle for EPA to sponsor diesel projects across the country. Details on criteria for distributing funding are currently being worked out by EPA. The amount of CARE funding given to the east coast states may affect the amount of diesel funding doled out. EPA will continue to solicit participation in the MADC's workgroups which, once firmly established, will meet on a monthly basis to raise issues of concern and make recommendations. The steering committee will discuss funding. Eric said that he hopes to have a PDD member on each committee.

Eric and Alison have met with nine municipalities in recent months to work on getting projects into queue. We already have three commitments in writing and are following up on others who expressed interest. In addition, Eric and Emily Bockian-Landsburg gave presentations to the Delaware Valley Association of School Bus Officials last Friday. Eric discussed retrofits and other clean diesel technologies advocated by PDD, and Emily talked more specifically about biodiesel as a clean fuel for buses. Representatives from 8-10 districts were present and we will continue to work on soliciting their participation in clean diesel programs.

Earlier this month, Eric coordinated a CMAQ workshop at DVRPC, which was attended by representatives from Philadelphia and Delaware Counties. Eric and Dawn Fenton co-presented the basics of CMAQ, and then facilitated a discussion where feedback was obtained from the counties on how to get CMAQ diesel projects off the ground. Their comments generally indicated that the best method would be to approach municipalities and generate interest in diesel retrofits at the local level, in order to apply pressure to counties to focus more on these types of funding initiatives. Currently, counties simply aren't presented with a large number of diesel proposals to include in their planning proposals.

In other news, Clean Air Council is spearheading a new organization in the city of Carlisle, PA which will be similar to the Diesel Difference. The group's formation was spurred by a letter sent by a group of physicians to a local newspaper cautioning about the dangers of diesel exhaust, especially particulate matter and its effect on children. The first steps will be to develop a stakeholder group and identify sources of diesel emissions in the area.

Lastly, Eric reminded the group that three hearings on the PA Clean Vehicles program will be held soon, the closest being in Broomall on March 28th. Two bills have been proposed in the state legislature to nullify the program, and the Senate bill has already passed the Senate and is under consideration in the House.

PDD SUBCOMMITTEE REPORTS:
First, Eric announced that Great Valley School District and Chester County IU received funding for clean school bus projects.

Second, he announced that save the date cards are available for the Clean Ports Workshop on May 10th, sponsored by EPA. The Ports Task Force met with Packer Terminal, who was amenable to the idea of using National Clean Diesel Campaign funding to retrofit its diesel engines operating at the port. It is already in the process of electrifying two cranes on its own. The Task Force expects that it will be able to use all of the $90,000 grant at Packer. The next step will be to obtain an assets list from the terminal, which is already underway.

Third, Eric addressed the group regarding the Criteria Committee's recent conference call that discussed adaptations to the calculation method for fleet recognition. He explained the proposed changes to the previous methodology for determining recognition levels, which have proved more difficult than initially expected. Problems have arisen from fleets' inability to provide all the information necessary for us to calculate reductions. During the conference call, it was agreed that a better method would be to work with vendors to calculate reductions from the vehicles that were retrofitted in exchange for including the vendor's name in recognition materials. Eric passed out a document outlining the revised policy. Ken Brown voiced some concerns that by simplifying the process, PDD might be open for future criticism regarding our recognition projects. Kelly Sheckler asked about whether the percentage reduction methodology might favor small fleets that make a few large improvements over larger fleets that make many small upgrades. Eric explained that the impetus for the change is based on the large number of fleets that are in queue to be recognized but that have been unable to provide us with the extensive information needed.

Susan McDowell was informed that she is now EPA's voting representative. Since she was not familiar with the recognition process, she would like some time to go over the procedures. Eric proposed that further discussion be conducted over email. Kevin Cummins interjected that SPC, one of the fleets we had planned to recognize, may be averse to participating. He and Eric will work with them to ascertain what level of participation might make them most comfortable.

NEXT MEETING AND LOCATION:
The next meeting will be held April 17 2006 at DVRPC.