EPA Levies $438,000 in Fines on School Bus Contractor for ‘Excessive Idling’

EPA Levies $438,000 in Fines and Mandatory ‘Environmental Projects’ on School Bus Contractor for ‘Excessive Idling’
By Elizabeth Harrington
April 10, 2012

Well any normal person would have thought that the Obama Administration would have mandated that school buses be converted to clean energy by now !!

At least to natural gas or propane if not algae.

Those diesel engines do stink.

The story says that inspectors spotted this problem 2 years ago.

Somebody must have too busy eating donuts or something.

(CNSNews.com) – The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) enforced nearly $500,000 in fines and mandatory “environmental projects” on a school bus contractor for “excessive idling,” and as part of its anti-idling campaign to reduce the carbon footprint of school buses waiting to pick up children for their routes.

“As part of a settlement for alleged excessive diesel idling in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, Durham School Services will commit to reduce idling from its school bus fleet of 13,900 buses operating in 30 states,” read an EPA press release on Tuesday.

The EPA says an agency inspector two years ago spotted buses of the Durham School Services, the second largest school bus transportation contractor in the country, “idling for extended periods of time” in school lots in New England.

The EPA’s enforcement is part of its broader national campaign aimed at reducing idling among public school bus fleets. The federal agency claims a bus whose engine is running while stationary consumes about one-half gallon of fuel per hour.

Durham reached a settlement for the violation and agreed to pay $90,000 in penalties. It also agreed to pay for $348,000 worth of environmental projects, including implementing a national training and management program “to prevent excessive idling from its entire fleet of school buses.”

I wonder how much that will cost ?
And how do trainees and trainers get to and from the classes ?
Maybe some of the older buses need a "carbon dating" test


Welcome to the modern day school system !
A lot of good those laws and penalties did !!

This is bloody stupid.

Stopping and starting a diesel engine will make the exhaust output worse.

If yanks really wanted to do something about diesels on the road.....they would cap the sulphur in the fuel to less than 55 ppm.........Just like the Europeans did 15odd years ago.

Diesel fuel that has less than 55 ppm of sulphur will burn cleaner than petrol.

The sooty, dirty smell that diesel gives off is directly related to how much sulphur is in the fuel.

Here in Australia, we had some of the dirtiest diesel in the world until a few years ago

Initially the sulphur content was 1500ppm. Dirty, sooty acidic and engine destroying.

At the moment it is 500ppm and will soon be 55ppm (like Europe).

Just the change from 1500ppm to 500ppm was instantly noticeable to those of us working in the industry.

Stopping and starting the engine in a bus will just wear the engine, reducing its life by more than half and causing the same engine to emit more crap into the atmosphere.

Diesels are still (by far) the most efficient of the engines we use.

Until someone finds a better way to store electrical energy, diesel is still our best option......If it is regulated appropriately.

reply to post by OccamAssassin


Good info.

Sounds like the engineers need to go back to the drawing boards !

reply to post by OccamAssassin


I'll second your comment....I've always heard that it was better to let a diesel engine idle than turn it off if it was less than 5 minutes. This is all about the $$$.

reply to post by isyeye

The federal agency claims a bus whose engine is running while stationary consumes about one-half gallon of fuel per hour.

These buses probably get 12-15 miles per gallon....one-half gallon of fuel per hour isn't very much when you look at the overall fuel usage.

reply to post by xuenchen


The engineers know what is going on.

The government are the ones who need to regulate the sulphur content through legislation.....Unfortunately, this means increased costs for oil companies as the sulphur removal process will add to the bottom line. The oil companies schmooze the government and the US of A bends to their will.

Damn, now I'm sounding like a conspiracy nutter

Conversion to LPG would be the ideal short term solution ,at least until we can move out of the dark ages .

www.torquegas.com.au...
LP Gas is injected in conjunction with the diesel to improve combustion, which results in more power and fuel cost savings of up to 20%. Other advantages include reduced exhaust emissions, longer engine life and smoother running. In this system, the ignition of the diesel under compression provides the spark for the LPG which, having a higher flash point than diesel, speeds the burn of the diesel and provides more complete combustion.