The Diesel Emissions Reduction Act of 2010, introduced Nov. 18, was passed out of committee Tuesday by the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.


U.S. Senators Tom Carper (D-Del.) and George V. Voinovich (R-Ohio), chairman and senior member of the Senate Subcommittee on Clean Air and Nuclear Safety, introduced the DERA bill. The bill is a five-year reauthorization of their 2005 legislation that established a voluntary national and state-level grant and loan program to reduce diesel emissions. The original DERA legislation authored by Sens. Voinovich and Carper enjoyed strong bipartisan support; passing by a vote of 92 to 1 on the Senate floor, it was included in the final version of the Energy Policy Act of 2005.

Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and James Inhofe (R-Okla.), the chair and ranking member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, are co-sponsors of the bill along with 17 other senators. A broad coalition of 539 environmental, science-based, public health, industry, labor and state and local government groups support a reauthorization of DERA during the lame-duck session. Its current authorization expires in fiscal year 2011.

The Diesel Technology Forum praised the committee's quick action on the bill.

"DERA has helped clean up tens of thousands of diesel engines. It's been incredibly cost-effective -- EPA estimates that every federal dollar invested in DERA translates into at least 13 dollars in health benefits," said Allen Schaeffer, the Executive Director of the Diesel Technology Forum. "This cost effectiveness is actually higher thanks to state and local matches that stretch the federal DERA dollars. DERA funds also support new and existing jobs in clean diesel manufacturing, as well as local jobs in installing and maintaining the new diesel technologies."

If passed in the current lame-duck session, the bill would authorize $200 million annually for diesel emissions reduction grants and loans from 2012 to 2016.