Good News for Advancing Clean Diesel
Chinese Arithmetic

Last week, the EPA announced grants to ten municipalities--from South Carolina to Hawaii--to help them reduce diesel emissions:

On November 7, 2005, EPA announced the award of more than $1 million to ten grantees for projects designed to demonstrate effective emissions reduction strategies for nonroad equipment and vehicles.
[...]
NCDC 2005 grants will demonstrate a wide variety of technologies including cleaner fuels, aftermarket retrofit devices such as catalysts and filters and engine replacement. These demonstration grants will reduce diesel emissions and improve air quality while serving as valuable models for future clean diesel projects in the nonroad sector.

Well, hey, that's a good start. The most one municipality received from this $1 million outlay was $135,000 to the American Lung Association of Hawaii to "partner with a private company to repower, or replace engines, in construction equipment." But then there's this from Wired's Autotopia blog (which I just discovered last week):

The Environmental Protection Agency's efforts to clean the air extend all the way to China. This week the EPA contributed $200,000 to retrofit 30 buses in Beijing with clean diesel technology.

I'm all for clean air everywhere , but I was surprised to learn that the grant for China is larger than any of the EPA's eight domestic clean diesel project awards for 2005. Shouldn't (clean air) charity start at home?
[...]
In addition to the Chinese project, the federal government is also working with Mexico, Chile, Thailand and India on clean air collaborations.

Ummmm. I have to say I agree. I'm all for foreign aid. But c'mon! This is the kind of seed money that is needed to start things progressing toward green here in the States. I wonder if it has anything to do with a certain visit by our dear leader this week?