International Demonstrates Green Diesel Technology School Bus for Senator Clinton and Business Leaders in Corning, N.Y.

CORNING, NY, April 29, 2003 — The school bus engine revved to a deafening whine as a crowd of dignitaries, including U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D., NY), and the region’s top business leaders gathered around its tailpipe.

Sen. Hillary Clinton (D., NY) looks on as International's Tom Trueblood demonstrates the "no smoke, no smell" exhaust from an idling Green Diesel Technology school bus in Corning, NY. (Photo by Eric Wensel, Corning Leader, April 28, 2003)Standing in the parking lot of Corning Inc. headquarters, all eyes were on Tom Trueblood’s handkerchief. His company, International Truck, made the bus. And as the white cloth whipped in the hot exhaust stream, witnesses were surprised to see — nothing.

It was the reason there was nothing to see that brought the gathering to Corning on Monday. And the event included good news from the region’s largest employer about both the environment and the local employment outlook.

During Clinton’s visit, Corning Inc. officials announced they will open a much-awaited diesel products plant in Erwin next January. The company previously had promised only to open the plant sometime in 2004, but the news will mean an earlier-than-expected addition of about 250 jobs to a region hard-hit by a tough economy.

Corning President and Chief Operating Officer Wendell Weeks said legislation soon to be introduced by Clinton was part of the decision to open the plant early.

“I’m working with my colleagues…to try to get money into the energy bill — money that will not only pay for new buses that use different fuels, like natural gas, but to pay for retrofitting existing (diesel) buses, because that’s where our biggest problem is,” Clinton said. “In addition, I will be introducing a separate clean bus legislation to build on what Congressman (Amory) Houghton (Jr., R-Corning,) and I were able to achieve last year.”

That legislation put aside $5 million to help communities retrofit their diesel school buses with environmental products like Corning’s. The grant program, now being run by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, is called “Clean School Bus USA.” Clinton said she is working to expand that program with legislation that would add “several hundred million dollars” to it.

And that will mean good things for our nation’s children, said Peggy Collins, a spokeswoman for the American Lung Association.

“We know that dirty diesel school buses, the kind used throughout the state to transport children, are a lead contributor to outdoor air pollution,” Collins said. “But even more importantly, significant pollution accumulates inside the bus, putting the health of the passengers riding in great jeopardy.”

Collins said various studies showed the level of diesel particulate matter — a known carcinogen — inside diesel school buses is anywhere from 5 percent to 15 percent higher than in the air outside the vehicle.

“By simply riding the bus to school, our children’s lung health is being jeopardized, and they are being exposed to toxic carcinogens,” she said. “Exposure to diesel exhaust has been linked to a host of health effects, including asthma exacerbation, allergies, decreased lung function, and eventually lung cancer and premature death. These are not exaggerations. These risks are unacceptable. It is imperative that children are provided with transportation that is safe and does not endanger their health on their way to and from school.”

Clinton estimated that about 400,000 of New York state’s estimated 450,000 school buses are powered by diesel fuel. And retrofitting those buses with Corning’s emissions control technology is a better option than replacing the buses altogether.

“I knew the business has been doing great,” he said. “We have a pilot line in the Erwin plant, and that was designed to hopefully help us get the permanent business here. Even with that pilot line the business has been growing steadily. So, for quite some time now, I’ve thought that might start up early.”

Local 1000 currently has about 140 members on layoff from the multi-plant bargaining unit. That contract covers all Corning hourly workers not employed at Corning’s Photonic Technologies facility in Gang Mills. That facility has been the hardest-hit by Corning’s telecommunication woes since early 2001.

Including the photonics plant, which makes the devices that control and maintain light signals in fiber-optic telecommunications systems, Local 1000 has about 1,600 members on layoff right now, Mandell said.

“As they fill the jobs in diesel, we’ll call people off the (140-member layoff) list to come in and fill the jobs,” Mandell said. “And of course, once they exhaust the layoff list, then we’ll start hiring off the street. That’s down the road a bit, but it’s looking promising.”