Diesel Forum Responds To School Bus Campaign By Union of Concerned Scientists

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Diesel Forum Responds To School Bus Campaign

By Union of Concerned Scientists

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For Immediate Release

Diesel Forum Responds To School Bus Campaign

By Union of Concerned Scientists

WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, Apr. 26 -/E-Wire/-- "Modernizing America's school bus fleet with clean diesel technology is the best option for both the environment and the pocketbook" â that's the message from Diesel Technology Forum Executive Director Allen Schaeffer in response to today's news conference by the Union of Concern Scientists.

"We agree that there are changes that can be made to improve the safety of children on school buses and we are strong supporters of upgrading the nation's school bus fleet," said Schaeffer. "Clean diesel technology is the most cost-effective way that also provides significant air quality benefits."

Today's clean diesel engines are more than eight times cleaner than those made just a decade ago, and further improvements are coming over the next seven years. For many years, school officials around the nation have overwhelmingly chosen diesel technology to meet their transportation needs, because the fuel is widely available and easy to handle. It is efficient, reliable and affordable and the safest fuel when a school bus is in an accident.

Recent studies about air quality on diesel school buses have produced dramatically different results. An extensive science based-study by one of the nation's largest school districts â Fairfax County, Virginia --- concluded that "breathing the air poses no health risks to our students and staff;" this after meticulously analyzing air quality on buses of varying ages and finding "no detectable levels of diesel exhaust and no age-related differences in bus air quality." In contrast, a study by the Natural Resources Defense Council on four of the oldest school buses in California, built before emissions standards took effect, concluded that diesel exposure caused asthma and an increased risk of lung cancer in children. The NRDC study was designed to generate headlines rather than sound scientific results.

"There is an intuition that only natural gas could possibly meet the most stringent emissions standards in the nation," said Schaeffer. "But it is wrong, and ignores the very real transformation that clean diesel engines, fuel and emissions traps have undergone to make them on par with natural gas at a far lower cost â 20-30 percent per bus âwithout even considering the fueling station costs.

What is shockingly absent from this debate is a reliable set of data on the health risks and emissions profiles of natural gas. Natural gas advocates apparently associate the lack of health research on CNG with "no risk," although this conclusion is not warranted by an absence of data. "Unknown risk," is really more appropriate, said Schaeffer. "It is alarming to see the distortion of the facts about diesel technology accompanied by an unthinking acceptance of natural gas technology."

The Diesel Technology Forum encourages policies that provide level playing fields for all clean technologies to compete, regardless of fuel type. Existing diesel buses can also be modernized and upgraded by re-powering them with a state-of-the art new clean diesel engine and using cleaner diesel fuel or by engine modifications and the retrofitting of emissions filters and using cleaner diesel fuel.

Incentive programs to upgrade the nation's school bus fleet are welcome, but they should be objective, fuel-neutral, fact-based and provide options for school districts, rather than attempt to mandate a marketplace for any particular technology. "What is not welcome are campaigns of misinformation that are sensationalized and distort or ignore the facts and shamefully prey on fear of parents and school children," asserted Schaeffer.

When public transit agencies in California were recently faced with this question of fuel choice, a vast majority of those outside Southern California (which does not permit a diesel option) chose clean diesel technology for the future. They based their preference for clean diesel on a range of factors including environmental health, safety, reliability, performance and cost-effectiveness. Most importantly they recognized that the clean diesel path best supported their primary mission as transit agencies which is to provide safe, affordable, accessible and reliable public transportation."

"Clean Diesel is a technology of the 21st century thanks to the continuous improvement in reducing emissions and in improving performance," stated Schaeffer. "Today's high-tech clean diesel powered vehicles get more clean air for the dollar, and continue to be the leading choice for school districts and transit agencies around the nation."

Copies of a Fact Sheet on Diesel Powered School Buses, the Fairfax County Virginia School Bus Study and related material can be found on the Diesel Technology Forum Web site at www.dieselforum.org.

Diesel Technology Forum

http://www.dieselforum.org

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