Talking Points

School Bus Diesel Emissions legislation:

• Can help to decrease attacks of childhood asthma, a disease which costs over $6 billion dollars per year to treat and is one of the top reasons that children miss school days;
• Improves air quality in and around schools and school buses;
• Lowers the incidence of asthma attacks and other respiratory ailments among students, bus drivers, school officials, teachers, and neighbors;
• Creates awareness about smog-forming air pollution and health hazards of diesel;
• Could help decrease the number of children hospitalized due to asthma (currently 150,000 per year);
• Addresses the problem of air pollutant levels inside vehicles such as school buses, which are calculated to be up to four times higher than in the ambient air;
• Phases out older, dirtier school buses that may not be as safe as newer buses;
• Fosters less of a domestic and foreign dependence on petroleum, thereby limiting vulnerability to price and supply fluctuations; and
• Will help to ensure that regional levels of airborne particulate matter, nitrogen oxides, and ozone will attain the federal Clean Air Act’s National Ambient Air Quality Standards.

By increasing alternative fuel use, consumers have fuel choices that compete with diesel, broaden the supply base, and have lower environmental impacts.

• The longer we wait to adopt less environmentally harmful energy sources, the more it will cost us in environmental degradation, adverse health effects and treatment, and pollution control measures.
• As petroleum and other non-renewable fuels become increasingly expensive, regulation that increases the use of alternative, renewable, and domestically-produced energy sources will help states that act early in producing and using such fuels to have an economic advantage.

Diesel fuel standards in the U.S. are not as strict as European Standards.

• Low Sulfur Diesel Fuel in the U.S. typically refers to diesel containing 15 ppm (parts per million) of sulfur.
• In Europe, Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel Fuel ranges between 5 ppm to 10 ppm.
• It is misleading when U.S. companies call diesel fuel containing 15 ppm “Ultra Low Sulfur;” it may lead to future discrepancies when we strive for sulfur content reductions down to 5 - 10 ppm.

Diesel engine emission control technologies are abundant.

• Particulate matter control technologies and strategies include passive and active diesel particulate filters, oxidation catalysts, and alternative fuel types such as liquefied (LNG) and compressed natural gas (CNG), emulsified diesel, and biodiesel fuels.
• Technologies to reduce nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions, such as exhaust gas recirculation (EGR), selective catalytic reduction systems (SCR), and NOx absorbers, are available for demonstration projects and are expected to enter the market over the next few years.

  For detailed information about these technologies, see the California Air Resources Board’s “Diesel Engine Emission Control Technologies.”