It was 1892 when Rudolf Diesel patented the internal combustion engine that bears his name. It was an impressive device, efficient and easy to maintain; the trucking and transit industries embraced it. On the other hand, people have complained from the first about the smoke and smell diesel engines produce. And in recent decades, a growing body of scientific evidence has shown that diesel exhaust is not only unpleasant to our senses, but also harmful to our health.

Victory Timeline 3.5.03 Settlement Reached on New L.A. Shipping Terminal 8.29.02 International Clean-Fuels Partnership Formed at World Summit 5.3.02 Court Upholds National Diesel Rule 4.18.02 More Clean Buses for D.C. 2.13.02 Study Shows Diesel Fumes May Cause Asthma 2.11.02 D.C. Gets Clean Buses, Refueling Station 2.12.01 Tests Reveal Diesel Fumes High Inside School Buses 12.21.00 EPA Announces New National Diesel Rules 11.1.00 13 States Take Action to Clean Up Dirty Diesel 9.7.00 Statler Brothers Chain Agrees to Buy Alt-Fuel Trucks 4.27.00 Grocery Chains Settle Lawsuit; Will Buy Alt-Fuel Trucks 4.12.00 N.Y. State's new Clean Fuel Bus Deal

But sweeping change is now underway. Local governments, school districts and businesses -- from transit agencies and trucking companies to farmers and construction firms -- have begun switching to vehicles and heavy equipment that run on cleaner fuels. In 2001, the Environmental Protection Agency issued a new national standard that will eventually make bus and truck diesel engines dramatically cleaner, and help Americans breathe easier. And in April 2003, the EPA took a big step toward closing another dirty-diesel loophole, proposing an equally restrictive standard for the nation's farm, construction and other heavy "nonroad" diesel equipment engines.

When fully implemented, these successes will add up to one of the most significant victories in a generation for public health and the environment, eliminating more than half of the nation's deaths related to particulate soot -- pollution particles -- from diesel.

NRDC's Dump Dirty Diesel campaign has led the way toward this achievement. And we expect to continue to build on that success, sticking to some principles that have guided our work from the beginning: Prove and Publicize the Problem; Provide Solutions; Start Small; and Think Big.

Prove and Publicize the Problem
We've already shown that diesel exhaust is an unacceptable threat to public health

From the beginning, NRDC's Dump Dirty Diesel campaign has worked to gather information and spread the word about diesel's dangers. Some examples:

• In 1993, NRDC released End of the Line for Dirty Diesels, outlining the health risks of diesel exhaust and laying out a plan for cleaning up New York City's transit buses with cleaner natural gas buses.



• NRDC's 1998 report Exhausted by Diesel catalogued diesel's harmful health effects. Drawing on more than three dozen studies, the report concluded that little doubt remained about the link between diesel fumes and cancer, asthma and other respiratory problems. The report also noted that too many Americans, especially people of color, live and work in polluted diesel "hot spots" near truck depots, bus terminals, retail distribution centers and busy highways.



• In 2001, an NRDC research team, the Coalition for Clean Air, and the University of California at Berkeley measured air quality inside school buses as they traveled along their daily routes in the Los Angeles area. Their alarming discovery? If your kids ride a diesel bus to school every day, chances are good that they are exposed to unacceptable cancer risks from diesel exhaust. The resulting report, No Breathing in the Aisles, has helped NRDC press school districts to begin switching to clean-fuel school buses.



• In 2002, NRDC documented the filthy state of diesel fleets in a number of foreign countries, including Brazil, India and China, and explained that reducing sulfur levels in diesel fuel could produce health effects as dramatic as the elimination of lead from gasoline.

Provide Solutions
We've shown that there are clean, economically competitive alternatives to diesel

Diesel's health threats are well documented, but evidence alone, no matter how sound, won't lead to change. Diesel engines are standard equipment in the trucking, transit, construction and agriculture industries. In each diesel battle NRDC has joined, we have demonstrated the availability of economically and technologically feasible alternatives. Some examples:

• Buses and Trucks: It's a myth that big vehicles need dirty diesel fuel to run. NRDC has helped show that compressed natural gas is an affordable, cleaner alternative fuel for buses and some trucks; thousands of these vehicles are now on the roads. A more far-reaching solution: change the chemistry of diesel fuel itself. Just as the lead content of gasoline once made it impossible to use modern pollution-control devices in car engines, traditional diesel's high sulfur content stands in the way of clean-burning truck and bus engines. Reducing sulfur levels in diesel fuel to near-zero levels will barely dent the profits of oil companies, but will make an enormous positive impact on public health by enabling the use of advanced pollution-control devices in diesel vehicles that can make them more than 90 percent cleaner.



• Heavy Equipment: The diesel engines used on America's farms, construction sites, ports, airports and for other "nonroad" uses are some of the dirtiest diesels anywhere, spewing out more asthma-attack-inducing soot particles than all of the nation's buses and trucks combined. But a clean solution is in sight: the same advances in fuel and engine design that work for buses and trucks should work for heavy diesel equipment, too. In some cases, natural gas may even provide the cleanest alternative -- cutting toxic and other emissions below what is currently possible with today's diesel fuel and engines.

Start Small
We've built momentum by demonstrating that change is possible

NRDC's Dump Dirty Diesel campaign has worked to persuade local governments, school districts, and businesses to switch to vehicles that run on cleaner fuels. Some examples:

• Public Transportation: With the help of NRDC members and other activists, we have brought about big changes in some of the nation's largest cities and metropolitan regions. In California, we were instrumental in bringing about new rules encouraging and in some circumstances requiring state and regional transit fleets to switch to alternative fuels. As a result, Los Angeles has several hundred natural gas buses on the streets or on order. In New York, NRDC's Dump Dirty Diesel Campaign made headlines in 1995 by placing advertisements on the backs of city buses that read "STANDING BEHIND THIS BUS COULD BE MORE DANGEROUS THAN STANDING IN FRONT OF IT." By putting our clean air message right above the polluting tailpipes, we made millions of New Yorkers aware of the problem and its solution. Within five years, the city's transit agency adopted a fleet-wide "Clean Fuel Bus Program" to cut diesel bus emissions by more than 90 percent. This comprehensive program is leading to the early retirement of the fleet's dirtiest diesel engines, the addition of soot-busting filter systems to all of the fleet's remaining diesel buses, and the deployment of more than 1,000 natural gas or hybrid-electric buses. We have won similar victories in Washington, D.C. and other cities.



• Trucking Firms: NRDC has used the law to persuade the grocery industry -- which has long relied overwhelmingly on diesel -- to move to cleaner fuel. In 1998, we sued three of California's largest grocery chains after tests found high levels of diesel exhaust near four of their distribution centers. In an April 2000 settlement, the chains, which include Albertsons, Lucky Stores, Ralphs, Safeway and Vons stores, agreed to add 150 alternative fuel trucks to their fleets. This victory puts other California businesses on notice that they need to clean up their fleets, and shows businesses everywhere that feasible alternatives to diesel exist.



• Construction Equipment: When hundreds of heavily polluting diesel engines were put to work cleaning up New York's "Ground Zero" after September 11, NRDC began working with private developers and city and state officials to ensure that the cleanest diesel fuels and engines were used. As a result, the City and the State have committed to using low-sulfur fuel and the most advanced emissions controls in all public construction efforts -- and so is Larry Silverstein, the developer of "World Trade Center 7."

Think Big
First we thought nationally, now we're also acting globally

Ridding the nation's roads and neighborhoods of dangerous diesel exhaust is a formidable task. But by setting achievable, incremental targets and taking them on one at a time, NRDC has made remarkable progress. The three goals below (we've already achieved the first) will take us even farther.

• A New National Standard for Diesel Fuel: NRDC was instrumental in the U.S. EPA's adoption, in 2001, of dramatically strengthened national standards for diesel fuel and emissions. The final rules included stringent limits on tailpipe emissions from new large trucks and buses, along with a requirement that the vehicles use diesel fuel that is virtually free of sulfur.
  
  The effect of the EPA's new rules will be similar to what happened when lead was removed from gasoline, which paved the way for the use of catalytic converters, vastly reducing emissions from cars on American roads. The new rules will reduce asthma attack-inducing soot particles by 90 percent in 2007, and smog-forming nitrogen-oxide emissions by 95 percent from 2007 to 2010. That's the equivalent of removing 13 million trucks from American roads. More important, this "2007 Rule" will save more than 8,300 premature deaths, more than 700,000 asthma attacks and other respiratory symptoms in children, and 1.5 million lost work days, every year -- together, more than $66 billion in net benefits to the nation.



• New Diesel Standards for Farm, Construction and Other Heavy "Nonroad" Equipment: Farm, construction and other heavy diesel equipment emit more particulate soot than the nation's diesel cars, trucks and buses combined. Many of these so-called "nonroad" engines lack even the most basic emissions controls, and state programs to ensure proper maintenance are inadequate.
  
  NRDC's goal: close the "dirty diesel loophole" that separates heavy nonroad equipment from the nation's trucks and buses. Since many heavy equipment makers also make truck and bus engines, it would make sense to adapt the emissions controls being developed for future trucks and buses to apply to farm and construction equipment. We seek a fuel standard that will reduce sulfur levels in today's nonroad diesel fuel to the same 15-parts-per-million level that trucks and buses will soon use, along with emissions standards that will achieve a 95 percent reduction in particulate soot and 90 percent reduction in smog-forming nitrogen oxides.
  
  The U.S. EPA's April 2003 proposal to clean up nonroad diesel engines largely reflects these goals, and NRDC is now urging the EPA to finalize the rule.



• A Global Approach to Cleaning Up Dirty Diesels: In developing countries around the world, millions of people are buying their first cars -- a key part of the growing pollution problem in most cities. Diesel sales are growing faster than gasoline vehicles, thanks to lower vehicle costs, better fuel economy and many pro-diesel tax policies around the world. Most of the diesel cars in the developing world are even dirtier than old dirty diesels common on American roads. In some countries, sulfur levels are 10 times higher than in the United States, and many countries are several steps behind in their emission standards.
  
  At the September 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development, NRDC played a key role in creating an international coalition to address this problem. The new Partnership for Clean Fuels and Vehicles seeks a two-step approach to cleaning up vehicle fuel, thereby bolstering efforts to reduce urban air pollution around the world. The partnership is dedicated to eliminating lead from gasoline in the nations that still use it, and to beginning the task of cleaning up dirty diesels by phasing down sulfur levels. The new partnership of U.N. organizations, national governments, industry and public interest groups will help countries around the world develop and implement action plans for eliminating lead and phasing down sulfur in diesel and gasoline fuels.

last revised 8.8.03