EPA Oversight of Diesel Grants Criticized

Ineffective oversight of the federal diesel emissions reduction grant program by the Environmental Protection Agency may have caused EPA to overstate the environmental benefits of the program, according to a new audit by the agency’s inspector general.

The report said that although EPA in 2009 doled out nearly $300 million in Diesel Emissions Reduction Act funding, grant-activity documentation “was not always sufficient to demonstrate that funded work met the specific requirements needed to achieve the desired emissions reductions.”