While Washington has become a major hub for the high technology and aerospace sectors, time honored industries such as agriculture, marine trades, and tourism remain vital to the state and its GDP of $338 billion.² Washington is a global gateway to Asia, Canada and Alaska with its ports handling seven percent of the country's exports and six percent of its imports.³ The Evergreen State's natural beauty supports a tourism industry that generates nearly $15.2 billion in visitor spending and supports over 143,000 jobs.⁴ Clean diesel technology not only powers many of the state's core industries, but helps to keep its air clean.

In recent years, technological advances have brought environmental progress to the diesel industry through a new clean diesel system, combining cleaner diesel fuel, advanced engines and effective exhaust control technology. Ever since 2010 heavy-duty trucks and buses have become virtually free of PM and NOx emissions and these same clean diesel technologies are being phased in for new off-road vehicles and equipment through 2015. Existing older diesel vehicles can be retrofitted with these technologies to significantly reduce emissions while greenhouse gas emission reductions are being realized through growing use of hybridization and renewable fuels.

Direct construction spending in Washington contributed $10.8 billion to the state GDP and employed over 137,000.¹⁸, ¹⁹ The industry relies on 45,691 pieces of largely diesel-powered equipment.²⁰

The state has one of the largest food and agriculture industries in the nation. Valued at $35 billion, this industry employs 160,000 people and contributes 11 percent to the state's economy.²¹ Washington's 39,000 farms power a diverse agricultural economy, led by the state's apple industry with 55 percent of U.S. production.²² Machines such as farm tractors, combines and irrigation pumps consumes about 50 million gallons of diesel fuel.²³

The forest products industry is the second largest manufacturing sector in the state, making up almost 15 percent of total manufacturing in Washington.²⁴ With 22 million acres, the forest products sector provided an estimated 19,900 jobs and exported $2.3 billion.²⁵ Forestry equipment is largely diesel-powered.

Diesel-powered mining equipment is used in over 350 mining operations across the state, generating more than $2.7 billion of economic output and supporting more than 27,000 jobs.²⁶ All mining equipment is diesel-powered.

Approximately 12 million distributed generation units are installed across the country, a large majority of which are diesel-powered emergency power units used primarily by customers for a small number of hours each year when grid-connected power is unavailable.²⁷ In fact, 75 percent of U.S. small business owners rate a power outage as a top threat to their business, which reinforces the crucial role of diesel as a back-up power source.²⁸

Port/Marine Traffic:

Washington's port system consists of 11 deep-draft public ports with commercial marine terminals and six shallow-draft public marine terminals.⁵ Washington State‘s seaports handle about $92 billion in international trade with over 122 million tons of freight, ranking as the fourth largest exporting state in the U.S.⁶ Together, the Port of Seattle and the Port of Tacoma are the third largest container load center in the U.S. While Washington represents about two percent of the nation's population, its ports handle eight percent of all U.S. exports and receives a six percent share of the nation's imports.⁷ Virtually all of the state's 55 registered ferries are diesel-powered.⁸

Ground Transportation:

113 million tons of cargo are transported by rail across the state's 3,209 total rail miles.⁹ Trucks carry most of the freight in the state, both by tonnage (59 percent) and value (64 percent). By 2035, this is expected to increase to 975 million tons of freight worth over $1,239 billion.¹⁰ Rail and truck transportation is almost completely powered by diesel engines and fuel.

Transit Buses:

There are 2,561 transit buses in the state carrying over 194 billion passengers.¹¹, ¹² King County Metro operates a fleet of about 1,300 vehicles that serves an annual ridership of 100 million. As a drive to improve fuel economy and reduce emissions, King County plans to add 221 buses to its existing 250 diesel-hybrid fleet.¹³

School Buses:

The state has a public school bus fleet of over 10,000.¹⁴ Washington has one of the largest statewide, state-funded, voluntary school bus retrofit program in the country providing enough funding to retrofit three-quarters of the state's school buses.¹⁵

Air Transportation:

The state's air infrastructure is supported by 138 public use airports.¹⁶ Seattle-Tacoma International Airport is the preeminent air gateway to the Pacific Northwest, handling close to 32 million total passengers and about 283,000 tons of air cargo.¹⁷ Aviation services are critical to many industries which depend on the diesel industry such as goods movement, agriculture and emergency services.

Diesel Supports Public Health & Safety

The Seattle Fire Department has nearly 60 fire apparatuses including fire engines, ladder trucks and fire boats.²⁹

More than 2,296 ambulances are used across the state.³⁰ These and all emergency vehicles are virtually exclusively powered by diesel engines because of their durability and reliability.

Clean Diesel Passenger Cars Arrive in Washington

New clean diesel passenger vehicles that meet the nation's strictest emission standards have been available in Washington since 2008.

Heavy-duty pickup trucks purchased throughout the country between 1994 and 2007 will save the United States 48 billion gallons of fuel. This is the fuel equivalent of removing 7.5 million cars from the road and the CO2 equivalent of removing 42 natural gas plants from the electric grid.³¹

Nationally, if diesel vehicles made up 15 percent of the passenger fleet, they would save 17 billion gallons of fuel, 413 million barrels of oil, and 205 million metric tons of CO2 by 2038.³²

Washington Policymakers Recognize the Value of Clean Diesel Technology

The Washington Department of Ecology administers the Washington State Clean Diesel Grant Program, which annually provides grants to install emissions control technology on heavy-duty diesel vehicles and equipment for cities, counties, transit authorities, ports and more.³³

Washington was the second state in the country to require that at least two percent of diesel sales by volume is comprised of biodiesel.³⁴

Washington State provides tax incentives for truck owners and truck stop operators who use or provide auxiliary power as a means of reducing idling.³⁵

Washington State provides various tax incentives to encourage the development of in-state production facilities, distribution services and retail sales facilities for biodiesel and ethanol fuels.³⁶

The State Legislature passed Senate Bill 6072 in 2003. The legislation provides funds for clean fuel and alternative fuel vehicle projects including retrofitting existing school buses with emissions control devices.³⁷

State agencies as a whole are required to use a minimum of 20 percent biodiesel to operate diesel-powered vessels, vehicles, and construction equipment.³⁸

Green Energy Incentive Account under Energy Freedom Program provides financial support for development of biofuels refueling infrastructure along interstate corridors.³⁹

Nationwide, from 2003 to 2007, diesel-powered pick-up trucks outsold hybrid vehicles by 2.5-to-1 and saved 21 times more fuel than all hybrids combined.

References

1 U.S. Census Bureau, http://www.census.gov/; R.L. Polk & Company, 2011; U.S. Energy Information Administration, 2009, http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/pet_cons_prim_dcu_nus_a.htm; National Biodiesel Board, http://www.biodiesel.org; U.S. Energy Information Administration, 2009, http://www.eia.gov/oiaf/1605/state/state_emissions.html;

2 Bureau of Economic Analysis, Regional Economic Accounts (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Commerce, 2009), http://www.bea.gov/regional/gsp/ http://www.bea.gov/newsreleases/regional/gdp_state/2010/pdf/gsp1110.pdf

3 WA Public Ports Association, Frequently Asked Questions, http://www.washingtonports.org/washington_ports/about_ports/ports_faq.asp

4 Seattle Convention and Visitors Bureau, Tourism Matters to Washington State, http://www.visitseattle.org/About-Us/Visitor-Impact.aspx

5 Washington State Legislature, Aviation and Marine, http://www.leg.wa.gov/JTC/Documents/TRM/2011UPDATE/16AviationandMarine.pdf

6 Ibid

7 Washington Public Ports Association, Trade Statistics, http://www.washingtonports.org/issues_areas/economic_development/trade_statistics.asp

8 Bureau of Transportation Statistics, National Census of Ferry Operators (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Transportation, 2007), http://www.bts.gov/publications/special_reports_and_issue_briefs/special_report/2010_12_01/html/table_02.html

9 Association of American Railroads, 2009 Railroad State Rankings http://www.aar.org/~/media/AAR/InCongress_RailroadsStates/2009rankings.ashx

10 WA DOT, Trucking, http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/Freight/Trucking/default.htm

11 American Public Transportation Association, 2010 Transit Vehicle Database (Washington, DC: APTA, 2010)

12 WDOT. Washington State Transit Data Update, January 2011, http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/NR/rdonlyres/58224063-BFE5-46DA-877B 6C47E01AB24E/0/2009TransitUpdaterev31011.pdf

13 American Public Transportation Association, 2010 Transit Vehicle Database (Washington, DC: APTA, 2010)

14 School Bus Fleet, State by State Transportation Statistics, School Transportation: 2008-09 School Year

15 Puget Sound Clean Air Agency, Diesel Solutions, School Buses, http://www.pscleanair.org/programs/dieselsolutions/buses/default.aspx

16 Washington State Department of Community, State Data, Transportation, http://www.choosewashington.com/data/transportation/Pages/default.aspx

17 Port of Seattle, Sea-Tac Airport Statistics, http://www.portseattle.org/seatac/statistics/index.shtml

18 Associated General Contractors of America, The Construction, Industry in Washington, http://www.agc.org/galleries/econ/WAstim.pdf

19 Bureau of Economic Analysis, Regional Economic Accounts (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Commerce, 2009), BEA, http://www.bea.gov

20 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, SCC Codes-Nonroad Model (Washington, DC: U.S. EPA, 2007)

21 WA Department of Agriculture, Agriculture: A Cornerstone of Washington's Economy, http://agr.wa.gov/AgInWA/

22 Ibid

23 Energy Information Administration, Adjusted Sales of Distillate Fuel Oil by End Use (EIA, 2009), http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/state/state_energy_profiles.cfm?sid=WA

24 Washington State Department of Community, Trade & Economic Development, Forest Products, http://www.choosewashington.com/industries/forest/Pages/default.aspx

25 Ibid

26 National Mining Association, The Economic Contributions of U.S. Mining in 2008 October 2010, http://www.nma.org/pdf/economic_contributions.pdf

27 U.S. Department of Energy, The Potential Benefits of Distributed Generation and Rate Related Issues That May Impede Their Expansion: A Study Pursuant to Section 1817 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, February 2007

28 Will Gruver, Keeping Your Business Profitable into the 21st Century (Bloomington, MN: U.S. Power & Environment, 2007), http://www.uspowerco.com/keeping_your_business_profitable_into_ 21st_century.htm

29 Seattle Fire Department, Department Profile (Seattle, WA: City of Seattle, 2011) http://www.seattle.gov/fire/deptInfo/deptProfile.htm

30 Journal of Emergency Medical Services, JEMS 2004 Platinum Resource Guide (San Diego, CA: JEMS, 2004), http://info.jems.com/jems/2004resources/

31 The Martec Group, American Road: The Opportunity for Clean Light-Duty Diesel Vehicles, Prepared for the Diesel Technology Forum, July 2008, http://www.dieselforum.org

32 Ibid

33 WA Department of Ecology, Washington State Clean Diesel Grant Program, http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/air/cars/DieselGrantPage.htm

34 Biodiesel Magazine, B2, Act 2: Helping Washington transition to a biodiesel mandate, http://www.biodieselmagazine.com/articles/879/nbb-in-sight

35 Washington State Department of Revenue, Special Notice (June 1,2006), http://dor.wa.gov/Docs/Pubs/SpecialNotices/2006/sn_06_Trucks.pdf

36 Puget Sound Clean Cities, Regulations and Incentives, http://www.pugetsoundcleancities.org/State_Incentives.aspx

37 Puget Sound Clean Cities, Washington State Regulations, http://www.pugetsoundcleancities.org/State_Regulations.aspx

38 BioEnergy Washington, Washington State Bioenergy Policy Framework, http://www.bioenergy.wa.gov/BiofuelIncentives.aspx

39 Ibid

40 Robb A. Barnitt, In Use Performance Comparison of Hybrid Electric, CNG, and Diesel Buses at New York City Transit, NREL/CP-540-42534, www.nrel.gov/vehiclesandfuels/fleettest/pdfs/42534.pdf