Arnie's $221 million assault on diesel emissions

Wise words from Governator Arnie Schwarzenegger in 1987, when his political career was but a twinkle in a PR man’s eye and he was content to dress up in camo and careen around the jungle on the hunt for a murderous alien crab in Predator: “if it bleeds, we can kill it.”

Today’s target is bleeds toxic particulate matter and if Arnie’s got anything to do with it, its days are most definitely numbered: diesel fuel emissions.

Arnie’s weapon of choice is ladling out $221 million in grants from the California Air Resources Board to projects whose raison d’etre is to find ways to trim those nasty emissons.

The California Air Resources Board will be handing out the grants a little like this:

• $198.4 million to upgrade over 8,200 trucks with cleaner equipment and engines
• $16.5 million for 18 new locomotives
• $2.5 million for shore electric power for cargo ships docking at the Port of San Diego
• $4.3 million for 17 freight-related harbor craft

The emissions are on the chopping block, says the board, because of their “potential to cause cancer and other respiratory problems” and for air quality reasons.

Here’s more:

Over their life, the projects to be funded are estimated to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions by 26,900 tons and particulate matter by 1,800 tons. ARB and the local agencies administering the monies will focus on projects that quickly reduce emissions and achieve benefits throughout the state, such as directing 94 percent of the total to cleaner trucks and locomotives that may travel within multiple corridors.