EPA awards $5 million in anti-idling grants

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has awarded $5 million in grants under its Smartway Transport Partnership, a collaboration with the freight industry to improve energy efficiency, aimed at making idle-reduction technologies more widely available on commercial vehicles.

The Texas Transportation Institute has received $3 million to fund its “Truck Engine Idle Reduction Technology Demonstration Program.” This program, which will be used by TTI’s Texas A&M Research Foundation, will:

1. Develop a methodology for choosing the best sites for idle reduction technologies
2. Create a map of high-priority areas for truckstop electrification
3. Deploy and evaluate truckstop electrification units at several truckstops and at one port

The remaining grant money was split between four agencies, each receiving $500,000 for its own anti-idling projects:

• The Ohio Dept. of Development will bolster its “Ohio and Midwest Truck Stop Electrification Corridors Demonstration, Evaluation, and Development Project” to evaluate optimal locations to deploy truckstop electrification in Ohio. The technology will be deployed and studied in at least one location.
• Lane Regional Air Pollution Authority (Oregon) received the money for its “Everybody Wins - Phase II” program. Lane County will install and evaluate 250 auxiliary power units (APU) in long-haul tractor-trailer trucks with sleeper cabs that haul freight along the I-5 corridor, primarily in Washington, Oregon and California. This project is designed to serve owner-operator and small fleets by providing no-interest loans to finance the cost of the APUs.

  For more information, go to lrapa.org/projects/everybody_wins

• American Transportation Research Institute will fund its “Demonstration of Integrated Mobile Idle Reduction Solutions” program, which will demonstrate and evaluate mobile idle reduction technologies on about 100 trucks. The equipment will be installed either as part of the manufacturing process or before the truck goes into service.

  For more information, go to www.atri-online.org.

• North Carolina State University, through its “Truck OEM APU Prep Kit Design and Installation” program, will work with fleet operators, technology vendors, and truck manufacturers to design installation kits for aftermarket APUs.

  “This EPA SmartWay grant is another step forward in our nation's efforts to conserve fuel, achieve energy independence and reduce emissions that contribute to soot and smog,” EPA Administrator Johnson said.

  For more information on Smartway Transport Partnership, go to www.epa.gov/otaq/smartway/.