The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has awarded New Jersey $2.1 million in grants to assist the Garden State’s efforts to reduce emissions from diesel engines.

The lion’s share of the money, $1 million, will electrify parking spaces at a truckstop along the New Jersey Turnpike. The project will help trucks avoid the emissions and fuels costs associated with engine idling.

EPA said the NJEPA will work with a New Jersey-based trucking association that represents short-haul motor carriers to use $750,000 to fund the purchase of auxiliary power units or bunk heaters.

EPA will allocate $135,000 to an idle reduction outreach project, which will be targeted to the trucking industry. The campaign will also train police in New Jersey on how to effectively enforce the state’s three-minute limit for engine idling.

Finally, $215,000 will be spent on a study that determines how effective retrofits are in reducing fine particle pollution inside of school buses. According to EPA, the results of the analysis will provide scientific direction for an upcoming legislated statewide mandatory retrofit program for certain diesel vehicles, including school buses.

“These diesel emission programs will work toward the reduction of harmful emissions from diesel engines,” said Alan Steinberg, EPA regional administrator.

“The grant for reducing diesel emissions complement New Jersey’s existing program which includes a three-minute idling law and a mandatory retrofit initiative affecting 40,000 vehicles in the state,” said New Jersey Dept. of Environmental Protection Commissioner Lisa P. Jackson.

For more information, go to http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/7144dd430c47561885257018004c77a3/7c3309b33a632ed5852571f00054d79f!OpenDocument