A bill to reauthorize the Diesel Emissions Reduction Act through fiscal year 2029 passed by the Senate in May would provide school buses more funding opportunities, that is if the House acts by Sept. 30, the date the current DERA program funding expires.
S. 2195 has been “held at the desk” in the House since May 10 for a conference to resolve differences in the bill language. It would fund the DERA program at $100 million annually for the next five years.
Administered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency since its implementation in 2005, the DERA program is backed by federal grants and rebates as it aims to promote health benefits by taking older-diesel engines off the road.
“[T]he Diesel Emissions Reduction Act has been one of our nation’s most cost-effective tools for reducing diesel emissions,” said Sen. Thomas Carper, a sponsor of the bill as well as the original law passed and signed in 2010. “Our bipartisan bill would ensure that the DERA program continues to deliver cleaner air, healthier communities, and economic benefits across our country. Congress has already reauthorized DERA on two other occasions. Now, I look forward to working with [Sen. Shelly] Capito and our colleagues on again reauthorizing this commonsense, clean air program.”
The bill passed the Senate on May 8.
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In its fifth report to Congress, the EPA stated the DERA program awarded $801 million from fiscal years 2008 to 2018 for the retrofit or replacement of 73,700 engines or vehicles. Forty-three percent of those vehicles were school buses, which is the sector with the largest number of upgrades.
According to a Senate report of S. 2195, diesel engines manufactured today are 60 times cleaner than decades ago. Lifetime emission reductions attributable to DERA funding totaled 16,800 tons of PM and 491,000 tons of NOX. Additionally, EPA estimates that the total lifetime value of PM-related health benefits attributed to these reduced emissions range from $8 billion to $8.6 billion and account for approximately 850 fewer premature deaths over this same period.
