NEW YORK - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has awarded $1.2 million to replace 51 older delivery trucks with diesel-electric hybrid trucks certified to the EPA's 2007 diesel standards. Under an application by CALSTART, the trucks belong to three truck fleets operating within New York and New Jersey.

The funds are provided under the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) of 2009 National Clean Diesel Funding Assistance Program. Under this funding competition, EPA Region 2 alone received over 52 grant applications requesting $168 million to help fund clean diesel emissions projects.

The project is made up of committed trucking fleets operating in non-attainment areas in Region 2 which are already prepared to order the advanced hybrid trucks. The three companies have previously identified specific vehicles for retirement and will replace these with new, advanced technology hybrid trucks to achieve significant reductions in diesel emissions via early replacement of older medium-duty and heavy-duty diesel trucks. CALSTART, a not for profit organization that focuses on advancing cleaner technologies, will assist the participants and supply them with technical and organizational support.

The Recovery Act allotted the National Clean Diesel Campaign (NCDC) a total of $300 million, of which the National Clean Diesel Funding Assistance Program received $156 million to fund competitive grants across the nation. The Recovery Act also included $20 million for the National Clean Diesel Emerging Technology Program grants and $30 million for the SmartWay Clean Diesel Finance Program grants.

In addition, under the Act's State Clean Diesel Grant program, a total of $88.2 million has been provided to states for clean diesel projects through a noncompetitive allocation process.

For information on EPA's implementation of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 in New Jersey, New York, Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands, visit www.epa.gov/recovery.

For information about EPA's clean diesel initiatives, visit www.epa.gov/cleandiesel.