EPA funds allow VPA to expand truck plan

EPA funds allow VPA to expand truck plan The Virginia Port Authority said it's expanding and rebranding a two-year-old pilot program that provides trucking companies with low-cost financing to purchase diesel trucks with more emission-efficient engines or rebates to retrofit older models.
   The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Diesel Program will provide a $258,000 grant to the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality to expand a local pilot program modeled after the federal SmartWay Transport Partnership. The funds, to be distributed over two years, will be enough to retrofit roughly 35 to 40 trucks.
   The local program will be renamed GO, short for Green Operator.
   The VPA, the Mid-Atlantic Air Regional Management Association and Virginia Clean Cities will cooperate to target independent truck owner-operators and large hauling firms to make them aware of the program. The rebates will be issued via MARAMA, but the GO program will be managed by the port authority.
   The bulk of the 2009 money will be spent on retrofitting trucks owned and operated by three companies participating in VPA’s SmartWay program. Those companies ' Evans Network, C&K Trucking and Andy’s Trucking ' voluntarily joined SmartWay last year and have upgraded some vehicles and will use the GO program to continue the work, the authority said.
   In late 2009, GO plans to issue a request for proposals targeting truckers and firms that would like to participate in the program in 2010.