NY/NJ port extends truck replacement program

The port authority’s board approved an additional $2.42 million for the Truck Replacement Program, which started in 2010.    The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey’s Board of Commissioners on Wednesday approved the continuation of a program to help port truckers replace older, higher-polluting trucks with newer, cleaner-burning ones.
   The board approved an additional $2.42 million for the agency’s Truck Replacement Program, which started in 2010. The funds will help pay for the replacement of about another 80 older trucks with 2007-or-older engines. Newer trucks are expected to reduce emissions by about 42 tons of particulate matter and 708 tons of nitrogen oxides over their operating lives.
   ”This program is a great example of the ways in which we can make our facilities more environmentally friendly at the same time we are increasing their economic development potential,” said Port Authority Chairman John Degnan in a statement.  
   The program extension, funded by a $2 million federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality grant, will cover up to 50 percent of the cost of a new truck, or up to a maximum of $25,000 per truck. To be eligible for the program, truckers must regularly call the port’s marine terminals and commit to serving the port for at least five years.
   Since starting the program, the port authority said it has disbursed all of its federal grant money to replace 429 older trucks with newer models. The original $34.4 million program was a combined $8.6 million in federal grants, which covered 25 percent of the replacement truck costs, and $25.8 million in funds allocated by the port authority for low-interest loans, if needed, for the remaining 75 percent. 
   “Since its inception, the Truck Replacement Program has resulted in an estimated annual emission reduction of 356 tons of nitrogen oxide and 14 tons of fine particulate matter, which represent roughly 70 and 64 percent reductions respectively in both pollutants,” the port authority said.