News Release 199

DEPARTMENT RECRUITS DIESEL FLEET OWNERS
AND OPERATORS FOR EMISSION REDUCTION
CAMPAIGN IN ST. LOUIS

St. Louis Diesel Retrofit Workshop and Expo is April 15

Volume 36-199

Contact: Renee Bungart

(For immediate release)

573-751-4465

JEFFERSON CITY, MO, APRIL 10, 2008 – The Missouri Department of Natural Resources is recruiting participants for the first diesel equipment retrofitting pilot project in St. Louis. The department received a grant to reduce diesel emissions and will select five trucking companies to participate in the campaign at the St. Louis Diesel Retrofit Workshop and Expo set for April 15.

The event will be held at the Anheuser-Busch Visitor’s Center located at S. 12th and Lynch streets in St. Louis. Participants should register by calling 314-584-6709 or visiting the department’s Web site at www.dnr.mo.gov/env/apcp/dieselretrofitprogram.htm.

The workshop is free, and all trucking, industrial, commercial and service fleet operators are invited and encouraged to attend. All attendees will be eligible to participate in the emission reduction campaign. The five trucks selected will be equipped with SmartWay? packages that consist of diesel oxidation catalysts and diesel particulate filters that have been developed to reduce diesel emissions.

Studies have shown that SmartWay? packages pay for themselves in terms of fuel savings, over and above the diesel emissions reductions they are designed to achieve. It is the department’s hope that these fleet owners will see the increase in fuel savings and proceed with retrofitting their entire fleets. Fuel cost savings of up to 40 percent are estimated, and an equivalent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions is expected.

Additionally, department staff will present SmartWay? diesel retrofit equipment and idle reduction strategies to benefit all attendees. Improving fuel efficiency, air quality and reducing greenhouse gas emissions go hand in hand.

The project will be a collaboration between the Department of Natural Resources, Grace Hill Clean Air Program, Blue Skyways Collaborative, St. Louis Regional Asthma Consortium, newly recruited Blue Skyways/SmartWay trucking companies, industries, partners and independent truckers.

For more information about the SmartWay Transport Partnership, see http://www.epa.gov/smartway/.

For news releases on the Web, visit www.dnr.mo.gov/newsrel. For a complete listing of the department's upcoming meetings, hearings and events, visit the department's online calendar at www.dnr.mo.gov/calendar/search.do.

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