- Home
- Priorities
- Clean Transportation
- Diesel Program
- Sources of Diesel Pollution
Sources of Diesel Pollution
The majority of diesel exhaust in the Puget Sound region comes from goods and people movement.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s 2017 emission inventory shows the percentages of diesel exhaust in our region. The diesel sources in our region include on-road vehicles, off-road vehicles, marine vessels, rail locomotives, and airplanes. Click on the tabs below to learn more about our focus sectors.
We focus our diesel reduction efforts on sources that stay within our region. We do not focus on reducing emissions from airplanes directly; however, our previous work includes reducing pollution from ground support equipment at airports and supporting policies that will help bring in cleaner jet fuel to the Puget Sound region.
This sector consists of trucks, vans, buses, waste haulers, and emergency-response vehicles.
Diesel emissions from on-road vehicles can be reduced by:
- Replacing diesel vehicles with:
- Near-zero-emission vehicles (propane, renewable natural gas)
- Zero-emission vehicles (battery electric, hydrogen fuel cell)
- Employing best practices
- Regular engine maintenance
- Matching the right-sized vehicle to the right application
- Route planning
- Switching to cleaner fuels, like renewable diesel and/or biodiesel
This sector includes construction equipment, aircraft-support equipment, and cargo-handling equipment used at seaports, rail yards, distribution centers, and waste transfer stations.
Diesel emissions from off-road equipment can be reduced by:
- Replacing diesel vehicles or engines with:
- Near-zero-emissions technology (propane, renewable natural gas)
- Zero-emissions technology (battery electric, hydrogen fuel cell)
- Installing idle-reduction technologies
- Switching to cleaner fuels, like renewable diesel and/or biodiesel
This sector includes ocean going vessels (container ships, cruise ships, tankers, bulk carries) and harbor vessels (tugboats, work boats, ferries, excursion vessels, government vessels, and some commercial fishing boats).
Diesel emissions from marine vessels can be reduced by:
- Replacing engines with cleaner diesel engines
- Installing hybrid-technology
- Installing shore power connections for vessels at berth
- Employing energy efficient best practices
This sector consists of locomotives that transport goods and people, including switcher, short-line, and line-haul locomotives.
Diesel emissions from locomotives can be reduced by:
- Replacing locomotives or locomotive engines with:
- Cleaner diesel-electric locomotives
- Battery electric locomotives
- Hydrogen fuel cell locomotives
- Installing idle-reduction technology
- Using cleaner fuels, like renewable diesel and/or biofuels