The money, awarded through the SmartWay Clean Diesel Finance Program, will guarantee loans used to buy retrofitted used tractor-trailers at Rush Truck Centers throughout the South. These trucks will run substantially cleaner than other rigs of the same vintage, and the program is designed to make a difference in air quality along Southern roads.

Rush Enterprises, Inc. which operates the largest network of commercial vehicle dealerships in North America, will be the exclusive vendor for these greener used trucks, starting at its Nashville (Smyrna), TN, dealership, and expanding to other Southeast locations over the next few years. Rush Truck Centers and SACE will determine select used trucks to be retrofitted, and buyers will also have the option of choosing to retrofit a pre-2007 vehicle from other trucks in inventory at the dealer’s locations.

The Clean Trucks Make Cents program is focused on the eight Southeastern states that make up EPA Region 4, where about 16 million people are subject to levels of air pollution that do not meet National Ambient Air Quality Standards for ground-level ozone, the main component in smog. About 8 million are exposed to air quality that violates the federal standards for particulate matter.

The Clean Trucks Make Cents program will finance up to 100% of the purchase or lease of a pre-2007 tractor-trailer. It is designed to help drivers and small businesses who might not normally qualify for such a loan but who want to make the move to a cleaner, greener truck. Rush Truck Centers in Nashville (Smyrna), Tennessee as well as Tampa and Winter Garden, Florida will have retrofitted trucks in stock in early 2011. Buyers will also have the option of choosing from our more than 800 used trucks in inventory throughout the country to be retrofitted with the verified emissions and idle reduction systems.