U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 8: Recovery Act News Releases Update: U.S. EPA's awards $450,000 in Recovery Act funding to the Mid-Dakota Education Cooperative to reduce diesel emissions and create jobs

CONTACT:

Rebecca Russo, EPA, (303) 312-6757

russo.rebecca@epa.gov

Kathryn Pederson, Mid-Dakota Education Cooperative

(701)857-4448

Laura Niles, EPA, (303) 312-6281

Niles.laura@epa.gov

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 26, 2009

 

U.S. EPA’s awards $450,000 in Recovery Act funding to the Mid-Dakota Education Cooperative to reduce diesel emissions and create jobs

(Denver, Colo. – June 26, 2009) - In a move that stands to create jobs, boost local economies, reduce diesel emissions and protect human health and the environment for people of the North Dakota, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has awarded $450,000 to the Mid-Dakota Education Cooperative. This clean diesel project will create jobs while protecting North Dakota’s air quality.

“This Recovery Act project is part of an ongoing effort to secure clean diesel technologies for our nation’s school buses, construction and farm equipment, long-haul trucks and other diesel vehicles,” said EPA Acting Regional Administrator, Carol Rushin.  “The Mid-Dakota Education Cooperative project will impact dozens of school buses and will reduce air toxic emissions, conserve fuel and help create and maintain jobs throughout North Dakota.”

The funds are provided under the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) of 2009 National Clean Diesel Funding Assistance Program. Under this funding competition, EPA Region 8 alone received over 37 grant applications requesting $56 million to help fund clean diesel emissions projects. The award announced today was chosen to both maximize economic impact and emissions reductions. 

 

This project will provide emissions control solutions for buses in the nine North Dakota school districts that make up the Mid-Dakota Education Cooperative.  The funding will partially pay for the replacement of nine school buses. It will fully pay for the installation of 66 fuel-operated heaters, which will significantly reduce school bus idling and will result in permanent fuel savings.  This project will provide air quality benefits and fuel savings throughout North Dakota. 

In addition to helping create and retain jobs, the clean diesel projects would help to reduce premature deaths, asthma attacks and other respiratory ailments, lost work days, and many other health impacts every year. 

The Recovery Act allotted the National Clean Diesel Campaign (NCDC) a total of $300 million, of which the National Clean Diesel Funding Assistance Program received $156 million to fund competitive grants across the nation. The Recovery Act also included $20 million for the National Clean Diesel Emerging Technology Program grants and $30 million for the SmartWay Clean Diesel Finance Program grants.

In addition, under the Act’s State Clean Diesel Grant program, a total of $88.2 million has been provided to States for clean diesel projects through a noncompetitive allocation process.

 

President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 on February 17, 2009 and has directed that the Recovery Act be implemented with unprecedented transparency and accountability. To that end, the American people can see how every dollar is being invested at Recovery.gov.

 

For information on EPA’s implementation of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 in North Dakota, visit: http://www.epa.gov/recovery.

 

For information about EPA’s clean diesel initiatives, visit: http://www.epa.gov/cleandiesel. 

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