Truckers who work or pass through Pennsylvania have been invited to comment on the Keystone State’s recent proposed ban on truck idling.

According to information from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, state officials are considering a proposal that would limit idling of trucks, school buses and transit buses to five minutes per hour in most cases. Exemptions would be allowed to heat or cool the truck’s sleeper berth when temperatures are below 40 degrees or above 75 degrees outside, although that exemption would end on May 1, 2010.

The state’s Environmental Quality Board has scheduled public hearings at:

• 1 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 12, at the Lehigh County Government Center at 17 S. Seventh St. in Allentown, PA.
• 3 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 13, in Room 105 at the Rachel Carson State Office Building, 400 Market St. in Harrisburg, PA.
• 1 p.m. Friday, Feb. 15, at the Department of Environmental Protection’s Southwest Regional Office, 400 Waterfront Drive in Pittsburgh.

Written comments, suggestions and objections can be mailed to:
            Environmental Quality Board
            P.O. Box 8477
            Harrisburg, PA 17105
or to:
            Rachel Carson State Office Building
            16th Floor
            400 Market St
            Harrisburg, PA 17101

Comments also may be submitted through an online form available at www.depweb.state.pa.us/RegComments.

Ron Ruman, a spokesman for the state DEP, told Land Line the new regulation could be in place “by this summer,” although he said companion legislation – introduced in 2007 – could change the rule and its development timetable. For more information on that legislation, click here.

– By Charlie Morasch, staff writer
charlie_morasch@landlinemag.com