Standing Behind the Bus Could be More Dangerous than in Front

Rich Kassel, senior attorney at NRDC, recently spoke to my NYCELLI class. He was instrumental in cleaning up the New York City MTA Bus Fleet. His campaign to dump dirty diesel was a result of personally choking on the diesel fumes emitted by the busses while riding his bike to work. The enjoyment of his bike ride took a swift turn after he exited Central Park and he decided to do something about it.

The campaign began with an advertisement on the back of MTA busses that stated: ''Standing behind this bus could be more dangerous than standing in front of it.'' The MTA initially refused to run the ad but relented after NRDC brought a lawsuit claiming that their First Amendment rights had been violated.



Particle pollution (also called particulate matter or PM) is the term for a mixture of solid particles and liquid droplets found in the air. Some particles, such as dust, dirt, soot, or smoke, are large or dark enough to be seen with the naked eye. Others are so small, they can only be detected using an electron microscope. PM comes from incomplete combustion of fuel, and has been linked in dozens and dozens of studies to a wide range of health impacts, including increased asthma emergencies, bronchitis, cancer, heart disease and premature deaths. And in 1995, 52% of street-level PM in Midtown came diesels.

At first the campaign attempted to force busses to used compressed natural gas (CNG). But converting to CNG was very expensive, politically difficult and not scalable to other fleets. Therefore, they moved onto set fuel-neutral and technology neutral performance targets. This was a novel idea at the time, although now performance standards, which allow emitters of pollution to get to the set standards any way they choose, is the norm. Between 1995 and 2006 the MTA NYC transit bus annual PM emissions fell by 97%. It was politically difficult to work with MTA and force them to undertake expensive action just for a environment and health impacts. However, when the EPA changed the standards, it changed the market and the feasibility of navigating the economics of the problem along with the politics. 90% of the NYC Transit’s emission benefits came from retiring and replacing the older buses regardless of fuel or technology chosen for the new buses.

The most interesting this about this diesel conversation was yet to come, however. You see, the core of diesel soot is black carbon. In the arctic, this black carbon absorbs light and settles on snow melting that snow and making the snow and ice darker thereby accelerating the melting. The melting of the ice and darkening of the polar ice caps accelerates climate change. Most of the notorious greenhouse gases live in the atmosphere for decades. Therefore, even if we slow the emission of greenhouse gases now, we won't see any impact for a long time. Black carbon, however, only remains in the atmosphere for a few weeks. Diesel engines contribute 25% of the world's black carbon emissions. There is potential to make a large impact on climate change in the short term with a focus on diesel initiatives.



One of these initiatives in the Clean Air Council's "Green Ports Initiative," which focuses on drayage trucks. Drayage trucks are diesel-fueled, heavy-duty trucks that transport containers, bulk, and break-bulk goods to and from ports and intermodal rail yards to other locations. The EPA has set emissions limits for these trucks, the issue however, is that these limits are only applicable to new trucks and drayage trucks can stay in operation for decades. The Council will focus on creating structures which provide incentives and subsidies for truck owners to retrofit and replace these old, dirty trucks.