The Valley Air District Governing Board took action today to accept over $9 million in grant funding from U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) to replace agricultural tractors and heavy-duty diesel trucks in the San Joaquin Valley.
The Valley Air District submitted two proposals to the EPA for the highly competitive Diesel Emission Reduction Act (DERA) 2022-2023 National Clean Diesel Funding Assistance Program. In March of 2024, the District was informed that the agricultural tractor replacement proposal and the heavy-duty diesel truck replacement proposal were each awarded $4.5 million in funding, the maximum amount available under this grant.
To date, the District’s Agricultural Tractor Replacement Program has provided over $820 million to replace more than 12,800 older, high-polluting agricultural tractors with new, significantly cleaner units, resulting in the reduction of more than 67,700 tons of NOx. The $4.5 million from this grant will help fund the replacement of approximately 102 additional older, high-polluting tractors, with match funding provided by the grant recipients.
A complete listing of available District grant programs for residents, businesses and agencies and the requirements can be found at www.valleyair.org/grants or by calling program staff at 559-230-5800.