CHICAGO, IL – U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 5 recently hosted the first meeting of its Midwest Clean Diesel Leadership Group in Chicago. The group of 32 public-sector and private-industry organizations shares the goal of cutting emissions from 1 million diesel engines in the region by 2010. The Leadership Group is co-chaired by Cummins Inc., Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, Ohio Environmental Council, and EPA Region 5.

EPA created the Midwest Clean Diesel Initiative to reduce emissions from older, existing diesel engines not covered by EPA’s stringent standards for cleaner fuels and new, cleaner engines. The Initiative estimates that more than 3 million diesel engines in the Midwest would benefit from the use of cleaner fuels and idle-reduction and diesel-retrofit technologies and strategies. These include rebuilding, re-powering, replacing, refueling, and retrofitting these engines with emission control devices. Already, the public-private partnership has undertaken more than $30 million in projects, affecting 350,000 engines, and reducing air pollution by more than 3.5 million pounds per year.