(10/22/15) SAN FRANCISCO - The E.P.A. has awarded $42,201 to the American Samoa Power Authority to replace a diesel generator with an all-electric generator on the Island of Ofu in American Samoa. This plan will reduce 75,000 gallons of diesel fuel annually.
"By promoting clean diesel technologies, we can enhance air quality, support green jobs, and fight global climate change," said Jared Blumenfeld, Regional Administrator for EPA's Pacific Southwest Office. "Public-private partnerships like the West Coast Collaborative are leading the way on reducing harmful diesel emissions."
The DERA plan is administered by EPA's West Coast Collaborative, a clean air partnership comprised of the Pacific Southwest and Pacific Northwest Regions, which leverages public and private funds to reduce emissions from the most polluting diesel sources in impacted communities. Along the West Coast, public and private partners from Alaska, American Samoa, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon and Washington received over $5.4 million in DERA grant backing to retrofit and replace old, polluting diesel vehicles and equipment, including school buses, trucks, agriculture and port equipment, and generators.
This backing is part of U.S. EPA's DERA fiscal year 2015 allocation which include engine replacements, idle reduction and retrofit technologies to clean up a variety of older diesel engines. Since 2008, the DERA plan has awarded in excess of 700 grants across the country in 600 communities. These plans have reduced emissions from in excess of 60,000 engines.
Reducing particulate matter emissions also reduces black carbon, which influences climate by directly absorbing light, reducing the reflectivity ("albedo") of snow and ice through deposition, and interacting with clouds.
Today's selected plans fund cleaner diesel engines that operate in economically disadvantaged communities whose residents suffer from higher-than-average instances of asthma, heart, and lung disease.
To learn more about all of this year's West Coast Collaborative DERA projects, visit:
http://www.westcoastcollaborative.org
For more information about EPA's National Clean Diesel campaign and the awarded DERA plans nationally, visit
www.epa.gov/cleandiesel.
