Members of the Arkansas Department of Transportation (ARDOT) and the Arkansas Department of Energy & Environment (E&E) will gather for a media event at 10 a.m. Friday, April 8 at ARDOT’s Equipment and Procurement building to showcase the new, lower emissions trucks purchased using State Agency Fleet Emissions Reduction (SAFER) Grant funding.
As part of the SAFER Grant, ARDOT received $1,109,790 to replace four diesel-powered tractor trucks and three diesel-powered dump trucks with 2020 or newer diesel-powered equivalent trucks. As a result of a lawsuit filed by the United States and the State of California against Volkswagen accusing Volkswagen of violating the Clean Air Act, Arkansas was allocated $14,647,709.09 in settlement funds.
These Environmental Mitigation Trust funds are to be used by states toward projects that reduce emissions from motor vehicles. One of four programs recommended for utilization of the Environmental Mitigation Trust funds in Arkansas was the SAFER Grant, a funding assistance program for state agencies to replace medium and heavy-duty diesel local freight and drayage trucks as well as diesel buses
