California Establishes Funding for Diesel Clean-Up Incentive Programs
UCS's efforts in California to establish funding for diesel clean-up incentive programs paid off this year. Two bills that raise $140 million per year for clean air programs were passed in the state legislature and signed by the governor in 2004. Both the Low Emission School Bus Program and The Carl Moyer Diesel Cleanup Program, which ran out of money in 2004, will benefit from these funds. UCS's 2004 report Sick of Soot: Reducing the Health Impacts of Diesel Pollution in California found that every dollar spent on the Moyer Program results in over ten dollars in public health cost savings. In the first six years of the program, UCS estimates that over 240 premature deaths caused by diesel pollution have been avoided. The new funding will reduce children's exposure to diesel pollution on school buses and reduce the public health impacts from diesel pollution across the state.
