Greenversations

I was enjoying my early morning quiet office when the phone rang. The man at the other end, Jason, uttered a polite good morning, asked if I worked on air quality issues, and then started firing questions on emissions and idling rules for his 15 year old truck. Did I know about how the federal regulations differed from California’s or Nevada’s? Would he incur fines if he did not comply this year, or was it just starting next year? Was it true that some states had grant programs for upgrading? How about tax incentives? How could he tell which new technologies would work? I was speechless and trust me when I say, I am rarely speechless. I mumbled a response and promised to call him back. Did we really expect every trucker to figure all that out?

I set out on what I thought would be a long day of tracking down answers. The answer came quickly and definitively when I asked a colleague who is an expert on partnerships aimed at reducing diesel pollution. She said, “Have him call Cascade Sierra Solutions”. Could it be that simple? Apparently so!

Everyone knows that diesel powered trucks carry most of our freight and that they last 25-30 years while exhaling a lot of harmful pollutants. Truckers want to/ need to clean up the legacy fleets - but how?

Help has come to many in the form of Cascade Sierra Solutions (CSS), one of our Environmental Award Winners. At CSS, they remove barriers to awareness, capital cost and regulatory information. They know how busy truckers can be and how hard it is for them to find answers about the rules of the road. By forming a unique partnership with public agencies and clean diesel equipment suppliers, they’ve managed to educate truckers through outreach centers at popular truck stops. CSS is helping truckers receive grants, tax incentives, and low interest financing to stay in compliance and reduce fuel expenses. In the past three years, this non-profit has placed upgrades on over 1800 trucks and facilitated over 300 truck replacements which have all accounted for over 5.5 million gallons of fuel savings. More importantly, they’ve reduced over 57,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide, 475 metric tons of nitrogen oxide and over 11 metric tons of particulate matter – the deadliest outdoor air pollutant in the US.

Thanks to CSS, Jason will keep on truckin’.

About the author: Niloufar Glosson is currently on assignment to the Office of Regional Administrator as a special assistant. Until recently she worked in the Air Program, where she learned how critical it is to reducing diesel pollution.

A recent survey on aggressive driving habits across the United States pointed to a wide variety of activities in which drivers vented their rage at the wheel. Some of these bad driving habits include tail-gating, honking horns, making obscene gestures, and speeding, to name a few. Large metropolitan areas have consistently been featured among the top offenders in the road rage arena. Nonetheless, many of us have encountered these aggressive drivers whether we live in the city, suburbia or rural areas. While I hope no one will challenge that many of these bad habits are dangerous, offensive and even illegal, keeping a level head at the wheel will allow you to save money and ultimately protect the environment.

Here are some tips that will help you use fuel more efficiently while driving. Try to keep a steady pace while driving. Sudden acceleration and heavy braking may reduce the fuel efficiency of your economy by up to 33 percent. By keeping distractions to a minimum, you can gauge your pace even in heavy traffic. Another piece of advice—observe the speed limit. Seems like a no brainer, but did you know that fuel efficiency decreases rapidly at speeds above 60 mph?

Furthermore, keep your car in shape. It’s important to keep your engine properly tuned to improve gas mileage. Plus we often forget to keep our tires properly inflated. Inflating tires at the proper pressure will improve your gas mileage and the life of your tires. Using the proper octane level at the pump also improves your mileage. Check your owner’s manual to see the most effective octane level for your car. Unless it’s recommended by the manufacturer, buying a higher octane gas might be a waste of your hard-earned money.

Since we’re approaching the 4th of July weekend, there are many who will hit the road to visit family and friends or relax in the great outdoors. Consider these tips so you can enjoy your drive and protect the Planet at the same time.

About the author: Lina Younes has been working for EPA since 2002 and chairs EPA’s Multilingual Communications Task Force. Prior to joining EPA, she was the Washington bureau chief for two Puerto Rican newspapers and she has worked for several government agencies.

Un reciente sondeo sobre los hábitos agresivos de conducir en Estados Unidos destacó una amplia variedad de actividades adoptadas por los conductores para ventilar su furia al volante. Algunos de estos malos hábitos incluyen el manejar demasiado cerca de otro automóvil, utilizar la bocina, hacer gestos obscenos, guiar a exceso de velocidad, entre otros. Las grandes zonas metropolitanas normalmente figuran entre los principales practicantes de la furia al volante. No obstante, muchos de nosotros nos hemos topado con estos conductores agresivos independientemente si vivimos en centros urbanos, en los suburbios o en áreas rurales. Mientras espero que nadie me vaya a negar que estos malos hábitos sean peligrosos, ofensivos y hasta ilegales, el mantener la calma y cordura al volante le permitirá ahorrar dinero y finalmente proteger el medio ambiente.

He aquí algunos consejos que le ayudarán a utilizar el combustible más eficientemente al manejar. En primer lugar, mantenga un paso estable al guiar. El proceso de acelerar y frenar repentinamente reduce el rendimiento del combustible hasta por un 33 por ciento. Al mantener las distracciones al mínimo usted puede controlar mejor el paso de su automóvil aún cuando el tránsito es pesado. Otro consejo—vaya al límite de velocidad indicado. Eso parece obvio, pero ¿sabía usted que la eficiencia de combustible se reduce drásticamente cuando acelera más de 60 millas por hora?

Además, mantenga su automóvil en buenas condiciones. Es importante hacer una revisión con regularidad de las condiciones de su automóvil para mejorar el rendimiento de la gasolina. Además no se olvide de mantener las llantas debidamente infladas. El inflar las llantas con el nivel adecuado de presión mejora el rendimiento de la gasolina y la duración de las mismas. También utilice el nivel de octanos adecuado cuando escoja la gasolina para mejorar el millaje. El manual de uso le brindará la información sobre el índice de octano de la gasolina para su automóvil, a menos que sea recomendado por el fabricante, el comprar una gasolina de un octano alto sería desperdiciar su dinero.

Como nos acercamos al fin de semana feriado del 4 de julio, hay muchos que usarán el automóvil para visitar familia y amistades o simplemente para pasar su momento de ocio al aire libre. Considere estos consejos para disfrutar su pasadía y proteger al Planeta Tierra también.

Sobre la autor: Lina M. F. Younes ha trabajado en la EPA desde el 2002 y está a cargo del Grupo de Trabajo sobre Comunicaciones Multilingües. Como periodista, dirigió la oficina en Washington de dos periódicos puertorriqueños y ha laborado en varias agencias gubernamentales.

Helping the environment doesn’t mean not having fun or forgoing the ways we like to celebrate.A case in point: for a lot of us, Las Vegas is all about traveling in high style and having a great time with friends.Nothing seems more a part of having a stylish night with friends than hopping aboard a nice ride.

They’re everywhere on the Strip, and they’re getting bigger and bigger. It’s not only the hotels, but the limos, vans, and SUVs that let people live the Las Vegas lifestyle if only for one night. As you can imagine, ultra-stretch SUVs and their related high style modes of transport need a lot of fuel… and that can use up fossil fuels, and increase air pollution.

Thanks to Earth Limos, doing it in style in Las Vegas can be easier on the planet. Earth Limos has a hybrid Toyota Prius and a Ford Excursion that’s powered by biodiesel. For larger transportation needs, Earth Buses has two limo-style party buses and a super stretch limo SUV that are all powered by biodiesel. Founder and Las Vegas native Lou Castro wanted to create the first eco-friendly transportation company in the city, and EPA’s Pacific Southwest Region honored Earth Limos as a 2009 Environmental Award winner. Lou has big plans to expand his fleet to use compressed natural gas and liquid propane in the near future. It’s an example for how small businesses everywhere can look to improve their environmental footprint and carve out a unique niche in their industry.

Gary Riley is an environmental engineer working in EPA’s Pacific Southwest Regional Office, Superfund Division. He works to investigate and clean up sites on EPA’s National Priorities List of the most polluted sites.

About the Author: Kristen Taddonio is a program analyst in the EPA Office of Air and Radiation’s Climate Protection Partnerships Division specializing in technology to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Kristen was recently selected as a finalist for the Partnership for Public Service’s “Call to Service” Medal, honoring outstanding young federal employees.

Have you ever sat in a car with a broken air conditioner on a hot summer day? If so, you might wonder how anyone ever drove a car without it. These days, car A/C is nearly universal – and in rapidly developing countries like India and China, it is among the first luxuries people are buying. The irony to all this is that even though A/C cools us down, it’s warming the planet up. Refrigerants are powerful greenhouse gases. CFC-12, the ozone-depleting refrigerant that used to be used in our cars’ A/C before 1994, was a greenhouse gas 8,500 times more potent than carbon dioxide! Thankfully, our current refrigerant, HFC-134a, is safe for the ozone layer. However, it is still a potent global warming gas: one pound of HFC-134a is equivalent to over 1,400 pounds of carbon dioxide. As more and more people buy cars with A/C, the global warming impacts are increasing.

The good news is that alterative refrigerants are available that can drastically reduce the impact our air conditioners have on the environment, and car makers are set to pick a replacement for HFC-134a in the near future. By switching away from HFC-134a in cars, the United States will save the equivalent of 30-50 million metric tons of carbon dioxide per year! See EPA’s Mobile Air Conditioning website.

However, this good news story could have had a very different ending. We’ve all heard stories about great new technologies that for one reason or the other, just didn’t work out. In each case, there is a show-stopper: either they were too expensive, undercut by competitors, or not marketed well enough. For new refrigerants, the show-stopper was outdated laws that would have forced automakers to stay with the old refrigerant. For the last three years, I’ve been working with an international consortium of environmental, automotive and engineering experts to fix the problem, and I’m happy to say we’ve had great success. Through our outreach and education, we’ve been able to help clear the way for cleaner refrigerants, and a cleaner future.

Until the new refrigerants arrive, I’ll still be using my car A/C. But it feels good to know that in the near future, I will be able to keep my car cool, and the planet too!

About the author: Henry Ferland is Co-Director of the Methane to Markets Partnership Secretariat (methanetomarkets.org)

I work in EPA’s Climate Change Division on an international methane reduction program that seeks to reduce climate change by encouraging developing countries to capture and use methane.  While there are costs associated with developing methane projects, there are multiple local co-benefits including revenue from the gas,  increased air and water quality, improved worker safety (in coal mines) and reduced dependence on fossil fuels.

How does this relate to biking to work?  I bike commute down to EPA’s office at 1310 L Street –from Tenleytown, DC - about 20 to 25 minutes to work and about 25 to 30 minutes home depending on lights, traffic, how hard I push it.  This bike commute provides a small personal contribution to reducing climate change but, like methane reduction, has significant co-benefits:

Here’s my personal co-benefit list:

1. May be fastest way to get to work (especially if you live in the city or in nearby suburbs).
2. Reverses the traffic stress paradigm — instead of getting stressed at the sight of traffic — I get happy   as I zip past gridlocked cars on my bike lane.
3. Excellent work-out.  Get a free hour of exercise each day without taking other time out of my schedule.
4. Stress release — grinding up the hill on Massachusetts Avenue is a great way to unwind and decompress after a long day at the office.
5. No fossil fuels equal zero emissions!
6. Great way to wake up and greet the day!

All this said – there are some important barriers to consider:

1. Occasional run-ins with bad or angry drivers.
2. Lack of clear bike lanes on most streets in DC — one must learn to be an assertive bike rider and also learn to pick good routes.
3. Proper gear — expensive outfits not needed — but a good wind layer is important for cold days in the winter and nice raincoat is good for rainy days.
4. Showers and Office Clothes.  If your office is not set up for biking you may need to figure out a system (nearby gym?) for showering and dressing appropriately.  I’ve found it helpful to carry my clothes in a square plastic box in panniers.   It’s also worth investigating using a locker or extra filing cabinet as in-office storage for office clothes.

The bottom-line on bike commuting:  give it a try, and you may find that you arrive home happier and less stressed then before and that’s before considering all the other co-benefits!

Each week we ask a question related to the environment. Please let us know your thoughts as comments. Feel free to respond to earlier comments or post new ideas. Previous questions.

Driving efficiently saves fuel and helps reduce air pollution and traffic congestion.  One tip for driving efficiently is to combine or chain trips so you complete many errands in one outing.

How many errands have you ever combined into one trip?

Cada semana hacemos una pregunta relacionada al medio ambiente. Por favor comparta con nosotros sus pensamientos y comentarios. Siéntase en libertad de responder a comentarios anteriores o plantear nuevas ideas. Preguntas previas.

El conducir eficientemente ahorra combustible y ayuda a reducir la contaminación atmosférica y congestión del tránsito. Un consejo para conducir de manera eficiente es el combinar viajes sucesivamente para completar muchas diligencias de una sola vez.

¿Cuántas diligencias ha combinado en un solo viaje?

About the Author: Mitch Greenberg is the manager of the EPA SmartWay Program in the Office of Air and Radiation.

Remember those ads that feature the surprise car in the driveway, complete with a big red bow on top? While I’m sure a new car is on many holiday wish lists this year, maybe even mine, in tight times like these we all have to be extra careful to make a wise investment in our wheels. If you have a shiny new car to buy for someone in your family, check out EPA’s Green Vehicle Guide to help you choose the cleanest, most fuel-efficient vehicles available.

No matter what size car, SUV or pickup you’re looking for, you may have smarter, greener options. Maybe you’ve seen our ads? You know, the ones for EPA’s SmartWay Leaf. If you haven’t seen them, the ads highlight the SmartWay brand and encourage all of us to look for the SmartWay leaf to help identify cars and trucks that are more environmentally friendly.

If you’ve been to a NASCAR race recently, you’ve probably already seen many of these cars. NASCAR and their auto company partners have been hosting auto shows at their tracks, allowing fans to get up close and personal with SmartWay-certified vehicles.

If you’re not in the market for a new car, you can still squeeze a few more miles per gallon out of the car you already own. During the holiday season, you can combine shopping trips to maximize efficiency. If you’re traveling out of town, carpool or take public transportation when possible. There are many ways to increase your car’s mileage (and reduce the amount of pollution it emits at the same time). Check out what you can do, but it all boils down to driving smart, taking care of your vehicle, and using it as little as possible.

To see what others are doing and to tell us how you’re traveling green this holiday season, check out this week’s  Question of the Week.

Remember green travel isn’t just for the holidays. You can do it year-round. Check out some of our previous posts to see how you can make your new holiday travel habits permanent.

Each week we ask a question related to the environment. Please let us know your thoughts as comments. Feel free to respond to earlier comments or post new ideas. Previous questions.

Thanksgiving is usually the busiest travel time in the U.S. Millions of us will be driving, flying, taking trains, or even walking to enjoy the holiday with family and friends.

How did you minimize environmental impacts while making holiday travel plans?

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En español: Cada semana hacemos una pregunta relacionada al medio ambiente. Por favor comparta con nosotros sus pensamientos y comentarios. Siéntase en libertad de responder a comentarios anteriores o plantear nuevas ideas. Preguntas previas.

La Fiesta de Acción de Gracias suele ser la época de más viajes en EE.UU. Millones de nosotros viajaremos por automóvil, avión o trenes, o hasta caminaremos para disfrutar de las fiestas con amistades y amigos.

¿Cómo minimizaría los impactos medioambientales al trazar sus planes de viajes para las fiestas?