Wal-Mart OK's fines to cut idling of trucks
In a settlement with nationwide impact, officials from
Under the pact, announced yesterday by the New England Regional Office of the Environmental Protection Agency, Wal-Mart will install generators in each of the company's roughly 6,500 semi-trailers, a spokesman for the retailer said yesterday. Signs will also be posted at Wal-Mart stores warning drivers to shut off their trucks when idling.
An EPA investigation in 2004 found that trucks at six New England Wal-Mart properties sometimes had their engines running for long periods, spewing diesel exhaust in violation of state and federal restrictions. Among other things, the exhaust contributes to smog and global climate shifts, the EPA said.
Wal-Mart has begun outfitting about 600 New England trucks with the portable generators, which cut pollution by allowing drivers to heat and cool their cabs without running the engine, company spokesman Marty Heires said in a telephone interview last night.
Improvements to the New England fleet are expected to be finished early next year, but Heires said it could take years to complete upgrades nationwide. He said the initial cost of the installation, possibly in the millions of dollars, would be recouped by conserving fuel.
''It's good for the environment, and ultimately it will pay for itself," he said.
Yesterday's agreement followed several other anti-idling settlements announced in recent years by the EPA's regional office. Last year, the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority agreed to pay $328,000 to settle an enforcement action of which idling buses were a part.
''Overall, vehicle idling is something we take quite seriously," EPA regional spokesman David Deegan said last night, also by telephone.
