U.S. Legislative Updates

EPA's National Clean Diesel Campaign (NCDC) began accepting applications for a new rebate program on November 13, 2012. An important change in the Diesel Emissions Reduction Act (DERA) reauthorization was to allow EPA to award rebates. This first year of rebates will be a pilot program focusing on the replacement of older school buses in both public and private fleets. The total funding for this opportunity will be approximately $2 million. To learn more about the rebate program, applicant eligibility and selection process, please visit www.epa.gov/cleandiesel/dera-rebate.htm. EPA will collect rebate applications from November 13 to December 14, 2012. 


The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has extended the declaration of regional emergency in the Eastern United States in response to Hurricane Sandy. DOT’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) announced that a regional emergency exists to justify an exemption from Part 390 through 399 of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations.

The emergency exemption is issued as a result of extreme weather conditions, shortages, and interruptions in the availability and/or delivery and repair of services and property throughout the States affected in the Eastern Region which include the following: Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and West Virginia.

The declaration of emergency provides relief for commercial motor vehicle operations while providing these emergency materials and services to customers in the above mentioned states. This exemption applies only to those operations providing direct assistance to the emergency relief effort. Direct assistance terminates when a driver or commercial motor vehicle is used in interstate commerce to transport cargo or provide services not destined for the emergency relief effort or when the motor carrier operation dispatches such driver or vehicle to another location to begin operations in furtherance of commerce.

 
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has issued a proposed rule to amend regulations to enable the FMCSA to suspend or revoke the operating authority registration of truck fleets that have shown either egregious disregard for safety compliance or that permit persons who have shown egregious disregard for safety compliance to act on their behalf. Additional information is available at http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/rules-regulations/administration/rulemakings/rule-programs/rule_making_details.aspx?ruleid=413