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Pull in to any truck stop in Texoma and you`ll likely see, hear and even smell rows of semi trucks idling while their drivers take breaks. The Environmental Protection Agency announced recently that practice wastes tons of fuel and hurts air quality. The EPA estimates more than half a million long haul trucks idle eight hours a day, 300 days a year. A spokesperson with the EPA says, “When you add all that up, you start to rack up some serious pollution numbers. With 180,000 tons of nitrogen oxides every year.” The EPA says those emissions create ozone and smog. The agency also estimates idling trucks result in 960 million wasted gallons of diesel fuel every year.

It’s probably worse because you don’t just stop for 8 hours. Most stop longer, especially now since the mandatory break is now 10 hours.

Truckers say they have to keep their vehicles running when they rest, or they`d suffer during hot summers and cold winters. NewsCenter 3`s Matt Keeney talked to the EPA and truckers today to see how the agency is working to solve this problem.

That’s true, but there are a lot of drivers that leave their trucks idle when they go in to the truck stop to shower, eat or watch TV.

The EPA says it`s as simple as this, plugging trucks in, just like RV owners have done at RV parks for years, so they can be comfortable without a running engine. The EPA says that will improve our air quality, and maybe even trucker`s health.

If it’s so simple… Just do it. Someone just snap their fingers and put outlets in every truck stop, rest area and shipper docks. Don’t forget to convert every truck out here to be able to plug in and use those outlets.

The EPA does have some grants available, but the agency says local governments may pick up the tab to improve their local air quality.

Good governmental beauracrat answer.

It`s not just air quality the EPA says it`s concerned about the health of truckers, it wonders if sleeping in cabs like this all the time, with the truck running, could hurt them down the road. But truckers aren`t worried. Chuck Putnam says, “These old trucks are pretty tight, now-a-days. I never smell any fumes.”

Isn’t it a little late for that. All the trucks since God knows when and all the truck drivers and now they’re worried about fumes? Drivers smoking cigarettes get more dangerous fumes.

Ezell agrees. He says what`s in his truck is worse than what`s coming out “I pull a tanker, so I`m in chemical plants all the time. If the EPA can live with the chemical plants, I can live with whatever they regulate.”

Right now, this is a voluntary program, but the EPA says certain high polluted areas may be required to put up similar plugs. The EPA says it does not have a timetable to institute all this, but eventually it would like to see plugs at truck stops all over the country.

Idling is bad. Pollution’s bad. Instead of giving some kind of business incentive or tax breaks for truck stops or for companies to buy APU’s, they just wave their hand from behind their desk and expect it to be done today.

Originally posted 2008-11-21 03:21:00.