Incentive grants under the Texas Emissions Reduction Program (TERP) have resulted in replacement of more than 1,732 older forklifts previously operating in the Lone Star State.
The ongoing program requires each new replacement forklift to operate with propane power, minimal emission of mono-nitrogen oxides (NOx) and emissions certification from the US Environmental Protection Agency.
Under the propane equipment initiative, Texas requires an owner to destroy each old machine, drilling a hole in the engine block and producing a scrap receipt for TERP auditors.
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) supplies the legislature-authorised funding through subcontractors including the Railroad Commission of Texas, the North Central Council of Governments for the Dallas-Fort Worth region and the Houston-Galveston Area Council.
So far, TCEQ has handled some applications directly and allocated a total of USD24 million in TERP funds to the Railroad Commission.
A grant seeker must submit a request for an estimate prior to submitting an application to the Railroad Commission. A separate application is filed for each forklift and projects the lower emissions from that equipment over five, six or seven years.
Recent grants tend to be larger than older grants because, in May 2008, the grant amount was increased from USD5,000to USD10,000 per ton of NOx reduced.
The first grant under the TERP initiative of USD8,510 was awarded to Hot Property Inc of El Paso, Texas, which does business as Sarabia's Portable Jons.
"We purchased one Yale forklift on 7 October 2004 (under the program, which) was started as an incentive to get rid of equipment of a certain age to control the toxic emissions," says Lorraine Wardy, president of Hot Property. "The original cost of the forklift was USD17,881." The replacement reduced emission of NOx by 1.91 short tons.
Wardy had a good experience with the program. "It was required that we dispose of our old forklift," she says. "I would go through it again, except now" because of economic conditions.
Subsequently, regulators limited eligibility for TERP grants to six urban and developed regions covering 34 of the 254 Texas counties.
The biggest replacement occurred at a motor carrier of commodities that applied in October 2007.
Waco, Texas-based Central Freight Lines Inc received USD1,394,120 in TERP funds for replacing 140 forklifts and reducing NOx emissions by 296 short tons. Central Freight operates those forklifts at terminals in Dallas, Tyler, Austin, San Antonio, Houston and Beaumont, Texas.
"We acquired Toyota forklifts with 4,000-pound (1,800-kg) lifting capacities from the Tyler branch of Lift Truck Supply Inc," says Mike Clark, Central Freight director of maintenance.
Central Freight operates a total of 860 propane-powered forklifts at terminals in 10 states.
Briggs Industrial Equipment Inc replaced 135 forklifts and reduced NOx emissions by 216 tons. Briggs applied for the grants totaling USD1,329,575 at various times from 2004 through 2008.
Dallas, Texas-based Sammons Enterprises Inc owns Briggs, a major dealer of industrial and construction equipment in the southern United States and Mexico and a supplier of forklifts manufactured by Yale and Taylor Machine Works Inc.
Freight hauler Yellow Transportation Inc, now YRC Inc, received a total of USD309,090 for replacing 30 forklifts in certain Texas sites and reducing NOx emissions by 62 short tons. The subsidiary of Overland Park, Kansas-based YRC Worldwide Inc applied for the grants from 2005 to 2006.
A Texas bottling group with connections to PepsiCo Inc received USD162,390 for replacing 17 forklifts and reducing NOx emissions by 33 tons. The applications were made in June 2007.
In May 2008, the TERP incentives became available to school buses and medium-duty trucks in the six eligible regions. So far, clean operating propane-powered equipment has replaced 11 older school buses.
"Currently, we have USD3,721,149 in grant funds remaining" and 96 pending applications, says Heather Ball, assistant director for marketing and public education with the Austin-based Railroad Commission.
As a procedural matter, Ball reports the Railroad Commission is not accepting additional requests for estimates until TCEQ administrators approve additional funding for the program.
On the Railroad Commission staff, Patrick Wilson is propane equipment initiative administrator, and Adam LaHood is service representative.