Pennsylvania awards $3.4M to projects helping cut vehicle emissions
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) awarded more than $3.4 million in 2020 Alternative Fuel Incentive Grants (AFIGs) to 20 cleaner fuel transportation projects statewide that will help improve air quality and public health and reduce greenhouse gas emissions to address climate change.
“These grants help cities, counties, school districts, colleges, as well as delivery, trash hauling, and other companies across Pennsylvania that want to be proactive in reducing air pollution from transportation,” said DEP Secretary Patrick McDonnell. “Their projects will help Pennsylvanians breathe cleaner air at school, in their communities, and at their workplaces.”
The AFIG Program funds projects that replace older gasoline- or diesel-fueled vehicles with alternative fuels, including natural gas, to reduce emissions of carbon monoxide, particulate matter, volatile organic compounds, nitrogen oxides, and carbon dioxide, a principal greenhouse gas. The 2020 AFIG funded projects will put 209 cleaner fuel school buses, garbage trucks, package delivery trucks, and other vehicles in use.
More than half the projects will help improve air quality in Environmental Justice communities, or census tracts where 20% or more individuals live at or below the federal poverty line and/or 30% or more individuals identify as a non-white minority, according to federal data. Collectively the projects are anticipated to reduce CO2 emissions by over 900 metric tons per year.
The 20 projects include:
Ingevity Corporation: $256,745 to equip 28 vehicles in eight Pennsylvania-based fleets with its adsorbed natural gas technology and install refueling infrastructure at each fleet’s location to study the environmental and economic impacts of using this renewable natural gas technology. Fleets are based in Allegheny, Erie, Lancaster, Philadelphia, and Washington counties.
Waste Management of Pennsylvania: $200,000 to purchase eight CNG garbage trucks that serve Bucks, Lackawanna, and Montgomery counties.
Lancaster Solid Waste Management Authority: $240,000 to purchase six CNG waste transfer trucks.
Lower Merion School District: $289,590 to purchase 10 CNG school buses.
United Parcel Service: $300,000 to purchase 35 CNG delivery vehicles based at the Horsham facility, and $300,000 to purchase 35 CNG delivery vehicles based at the New Stanton facility.
Shank Waste Service: $300,000 for the purchase of eight CNG garbage trucks.
Source: Department of Environmental Protection
