The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) recently awarded $2.4 million in Driving PA Forward grants to nine cleaner fuel transportation projects in seven counties.
The projects will remove 62 older diesel vehicles from the roadways and replace them with compressed natural gas-powered or cleaner diesel vehicles. This switch is expected to reduce carbon dioxide in the environment while preventing hydrocarbon, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, and fine particulate matter emissions.
“These Driving PA Forward grants are a fast lane to reducing local air pollution, replacing older vehicles that are routine parts of Pennsylvanians’ daily lives, such as school buses and trash collection trucks, with cleaner fuel versions to make school grounds and communities healthier places to be,” DEP Secretary Patrick McDonnell said.
Projects are located in Allegheny, Beaver, Butler, Cambria, Clearfield, Delaware, and Mercer counties.
Five projects — located in Allegheny, Cambria, Clearfield, and Delaware counties — serve Environmental Justice areas, where at least 20 percent of residents have incomes below the federal poverty line and/or 30 percent identify as a non-white minority.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) provided the funding as Pennsylvania’s share of a national settlement with Volkswagen Group of America for cheating on EPA emissions tests.
Driving PA Forward includes eight programs aimed at improving the environment.