Gov. Ned Lamont announced on April 7 that Connecticut will allocate $15 million from a national Volkswagen emissions settlement to fund clean air projects aimed at reducing pollution from diesel-powered vehicles and equipment.
Between June 2016 and January 2017, a civil case occurred between the United States, the State of California and Volkswagen regarding the “allegations of cheating emissions tests and deceiving customers,” according to the Federal Trade Commission.
The settlement stemmed from the 2015 Volkswagen emissions scandal, in which the company installed “defeat devices” in millions of diesel vehicles to bypass emissions standards during testing.
In the final settlement, Connecticut received $55 million and has used $30 million to date, with $15 million now allocated under Lamont’s newest initiative.
The $15 million will be used to finance projects that replace, repower or retrofit “an array of aging diesel mobile sources and/or non-road equipment,” according to a press release from the Governor’s office. Some of the projects listed as eligible for funding include “on-road heavy-duty vehicles such as school buses, off-road equipment such as cargo handling equipment or the repowering of marine engines.” of marine engines.”
The press release cites the transportation sector as being responsible for “approximately 70% of smog-forming air pollution and 40% of greenhouse gas emissions in Connecticut.” Additionally, according to data from the International Energy Agency, transport accounts for the highest amount of nitrogen oxide emissions.
The funding, according to the Governor’s press release, is intended to help “reduce more nitrogen oxide and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from mobile sources” and bring Connecticut closer to “meeting health-based air quality standards and long-term GHG reduction targets, while at the same time creating economic development opportunities.”
This funding allocation to clean air projects is an effort to offset some of the air pollution caused by Volkswagen’s emissions test cheating and mitigate the long-term impacts that air pollution has had on Connecticut and its residents, as stated in the press release.
According to the state Department of Public Health, Connecticut ranked fourth in terms of percentage of adults with asthma in the U.S. and has a percentage (8.2%) of children with asthma, which is higher than the national average.
“Climate change and smoggy air pollution are hurting the folks who live and work in Connecticut and cannot be ignored,” Lamont said in the press release. “Our efforts to fight this pollution are all the more important as long as government leaders in Washington seem intent to give polluters a free pass.”