By Carl Pope
August 13, 2012
Should California lead the world in ending the menace of soot and black carbon pollution from diesel engines?

We've all choked on black smoke billowing from diesel trucks and buses. It's obviously polluting, but what's not obvious is much worse. Diesel emissions are a major health hazard - cancer causing, in fact. And they are a big part of the threat to our climate.

Yet cleaning them up is practical, easy and affordable - the rules just need to be enforced.

On June 12, the World Health Organization classified diesel particulate matter (soot) as a Group 1 "known carcinogen," adding it to an ugly list of chemicals that includes asbestos and cigarette smoke. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that several thousand Americans die each year from diesel pollution.

Diesel pollution also causes respiratory diseases such as asthma and bronchitis. And, if all this isn't bad enough, black carbon, a major component of diesel emissions, is second only to carbon dioxide as a harmful climate disrupter and greenhouse gas.

A third of Americans and most Californians live in areas with dangerous levels of air pollution, including diesel particulates, that fail to meet the minimum air quality standard set by the EPA under the 1970 Clean Air Act. Low-income communities near major transportation centers and ports are disproportionately hurt.
And in general, the problem is getting worse. Our economy is ever more dependent on diesel trucks, buses and construction equipment, and on ports, where ships, trucks, service vehicles and refrigeration units all use diesel fuel. So even though EPA standards on new diesel engines have reduced particulate matter pollution, the overall rapid growth in the use of diesel-powered vehicles and in the miles they drive offsets much of the pollution reduction. Diesel engines last a long time - heavy-duty diesel vehicles generally stay in operation for 15 to 30 years.

There is a solution for dealing with particulate pollution from even the oldest diesels. Engines can be retrofitted with a filter that reduces toxic particulate emissions by 85% or more. The filter isn't unproven technology: More than 50,000 retrofitted diesel filters are in operation in the U.S. today.

Retrofitting a truck costs about $10,000. That's not cheap, but if the truck has 10 years of life remaining, it's only $1,000 a year. Why "only"? Because a 16-wheeler traveling 75,000 miles a year and getting about 7 miles per gallon (that's a generous estimate) will consume about $40,000 a year in diesel fuel at its current price, so $1,000 isn't a large fraction of the annual operating cost .

As important, according to the EPA, is that every $1 spent on diesel emission reductions saves about $13 in healthcare costs, in addition to creating jobs for local truck dealers and filter manufacturers. [MORE]

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