June 18, 2007

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:
Jim Black, Clean Air Council
Ken Brown, University of Pennsylvania
Francine Carlini, PADEP
Eric Cheung, Clean Air Council
Fred Cummings, City of Philadelphia Division of Aviation
Brett Fusco, DVRPC
Darlene Heep, City of Philadelphia Law Department
Thomas Huynh, City of Philadelphia, Air Management Services
Sean Greene, DVRPC
Jack LeBeau, EHRF
Murray Lewis, Air Technology Inc.
Arleen Shulman, PADEP
Dan Snowden, PennDOT
Alison Tracy, City of Philadelphia, Air Management Services
Barbara Wilson, Krapf Bus

MINUTES TAKEN BY:
Alison Tracy

INTRODUCTIONS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Alison welcomed the group and announced that the first installment of the Sunoco Settlement is expected by the end of June, and funds would become available July 1st. AMS is working with Philadelphia's city fleet to prepare for installations.

The Fry-O-Diesel Kickoff was held last Friday at the Philadelphia Zoo, and a parade was held to demonstrate the technology in action.

The Clean School Bus USA grant is due June 26th. Bill Jones will be holding a Q&A call on the 20th to assist potential applicants. Alison is assisting the Philadelphia School District with their application, and Eric will be submitting his own independently that would cover several school districts. West Chester School District received 2006 funds through this program.

AMS is still looking for Air Pollution Control Board nominees including a boiler expert, a fuels expert, a business representative and a community resident. Please contact Alison if you have any suggestions.

The Energy Coordinating Agency of Philadelphia is holding an event on climate change July 18th-20th in Center City Philadelphia.

Presentations from the Diesel Funding Forum held in April are now online, and they are valuable references for anyone interested in learning about diesel funding opportunities.

AMS has hired a contractor to analyze possible costs associated with implementing contract language mandating retrofits in City public works contract. The contractor has begun work on a report and expects to have it completed in a few weeks.

Alison is working with Lorna Rosenberg of EPA regarding adding additional information to a green building workshop that is given to construction firms interested in becoming more environmentally conscious. Currently, there is no information on retrofits included in the workshop materials. Alison and Eric are hoping to meet with Lorna to determine what information to include.

PHILADELPHIA DIESEL DIFFERENCE ACTIVITIES UPDATE:
The Diesel Health Symposium is still in the early planning stage, and AMS, CAC, EPA and UPenn are now working on assembling a Steering Committee to oversee the details of the event.

There is a community event on September 9th that will include a PDD table. The organizers are shooting for 10,000 attendees. Eric will work on displaying a model clean diesel bus with a decal.

COMMITTEE UPDATES:
The Ports Task Force has some meetings coming up, one in July as well as an Asthma Awareness community event in August, required by the CARE grant. Eric is working on obtaining fleet information from Packer to determine whether it qualifies for recognition.

GRANT UPDATES:
The Clean School Bus USA is due June 26th. DVRPC is still considering whether to open competitive CMAQ funding for this year. The item was tabled this month, but we should know more next month. The funds would be for projects to be completed in FY09.

ONE MINUTE UPDATES:
DVRPC is expecting a bad summer for Ozone, and there have already been more ozone action days than in other years.

PennDOT noted that Ohio has implemented CMAQ funds for retrofits, per an executive order by the state's governor.

DEP said they have already been lobbied by Johnson Matthey to put unused CMAQ funds towards retrofit projects. This will reduce the amount of funds that regions must return unused. PM revisions are due April 2008, and hopefully the Diesel Symposium will help to raise interest in that effort.

Eric noted that the Green Airport Partnership meets on the 28th of June.

Tom added that AMS has reached an agreement with Temple University and the school will do a SEP as part of its agreement. The SEP will fund retrofits on University-owned vehicles.

Krapf reported on an article about Fry-O-Diesel in last week's Inquirer, and added that an AFIG grant for biodiesel has been submitted to the state for 6 school districts in Chester County.

Jeff Sherman of Caterpillar was on hand to learn more about the PDD working group's activities.

Murray Lewis of Air Technologies, Inc. spoke about his concerns regarding filtration systems in Fire Stations in Philadelphia and exposure of nearby communities.

Ken Brown commented that biofuels would be put to better use by substituting them for home heating oil, which still contains up to 3000 ppm of sulfur, whereas on-road diesel is now limited to 15 ppm.

WEEKLY PRESENTATION:
Arleen Shulman of PADEP detailed the progress of the State of Pennsylvania thus far in setting a statewide anti-idling law. The effort began when an organization called the Clean Air Board of Central PA submitted a petition asking the State to review such a policy. The Environmental Quality Board accepted the proposal for study in January 2007, and directed DEP to develop a statewide regulation. The Motor Truck Association favors a statewide rule over differential rules in various communities. However, Arleen pointed out that even if the law passes at the state level, localities are still able to draft more stringent laws regionally. Yet to be determined are the specifics of the rule-e.g., how many minutes vehicles would be able to idle, what vehicles would be exempt, and who would enforce the law. It is likely that the State would be able to cite property owners, not just drivers, for violations at their facilities. DEP hopes that the rule will help regions to achieve attainment with PM2.5 goals. Financial assistance for APUs would be available to help improve compliance. If accepted, the law would go into effect in November of 2008.

NEXT MEETING AND LOCATION:

The next meeting will be held July 16th, 2007 at DVRPC.