In an effort to improve air quality, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency urged the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to reconsider plan for replacing 60,000 old diesel trucks with with ‘cleaner’ trucks that will produce less pollution.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the Port Authority reversed course on its clean-trucks plan last week, saying it could commit only $1.2 million, in addition to $9 million in federal grant funding. That would be enough to help truckers replace only about 400 older trucks with vehicles that produce less pollution from diesel exhaust, well short of the more that 6,000 it had hoped to replace.
The EPA told Port Authority Executive Director Patrick Foye in a letter it was “disappointed” and urged the agency to reconsider. The decision has angered the EPA and local environmental advocates, who say the older trucks contribute to heavy air pollution and health problems in the communities surrounding Newark, N.J. Lines of trucks idling in front of the gates of the terminals are a common site in northern New Jersey, and delays at the terminals can snarl traffic for miles.
