This just in from Clean Water Action: 

Senate Environment Committee to Consider Diesel Legislation Wednesday
Environmentalists Support Effort to Require Clean Contracts for New Diesel Vehicles
 
PROVIDENCE--Clean Water Action announced support for legislation on the Senate Environment Committee calendar for June 4, which calls for the state to contract clean diesel vehicles and for municipalities to contract clean waste haulers.  The Diesel Emissions Reduction Act S 2633, sponsored by Sen. Paul Moura, of East Providence (and its companion bill, H 7524, sponsored by Rep. Ray Sullivan of Coventry) will protect people from harmful diesel emissions.
 
“Since this bill only affects new purchases and contracts, it provides a means for the state to protect our health, in a fiscally constrained time,” said Denise Parrillo, of Clean Water Action and The Diesel Pollution Initiative, a coalition of 38 groups working to reduce diesel pollution in RI. “The bill is strong, and also a manageable step for Rhode Island.”

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Background

Twice as many people die in the United States from diesel soot as from firearm homicide. The tiny particles in diesel soot are toxic, with each small particulate containing 40 air toxics and metals, of which 15 are known carcinogens classified by the EPA. In Rhode Island alone there are 51 premature deaths and 79 non-fatal heart attacks caused by diesel soot. Diesel exhaust also aggravates asthma and disproportionately increases the frequency of asthma attacks for those living in urban areas.

Recognizing that diesel is a serious threat to our health, the federal EPA passed legislation in 2005 requiring all new diesel engines to be 90% cleaner starting in 2007. Since these standards only apply to new engines, older dirtier diesels will be on Rhode Island’s roads and at our job-sites for years to come, unless we act now. But we have the technology to clean up diesels and make our air safer to breathe.  Pollution filters called retrofits can capture more than 90% of diesel soot.

The General Assembly has already started to do something about the diesel pollution problem in RI.  In 2006 the Anti-Idling Act to ban the unnecessary idling of any stationary diesel vehicle in the state of Rhode Island was passed.

In 2007 The Diesel Emissions Reduction Act was passed to clean up school buses.

Now two more fleets need to be cleaner. Waste haulers travel through residential neighborhoods, increasing families’ exposure to diesel soot while they are home and their children are at play.  Since state vehicles used by or on behalf of the state pose an immediate health risk, government should lead by example and ensure those vehicles are cleaned up as well.

For background information about the campaign, go to http://www.cleanwateraction.org/ri/diesel.html or http://www.catf.us/projects/diesel/dieselhealth/