Rich Kassel
Rich Kassel is a senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council and directs NRDC’s Clean Vehicles and Fuels Project. He is an internationally recognized expert on clean fuel and vehicle pollution issues, and specializes on strategies to reduce diesel pollution in the U.S. and developing countries around the world.
Highlights of Mr. Kassel’s projects include:
• Working with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to help develop and implement EPA's Highway Diesel and Nonroad Diesel Rules that will eliminate more than 20,000 premature deaths and $150 billion in health costs annually by 2030.
• Working with the Pataki administration and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to create a “Clean Fuel Bus Program” for the New York City Transit bus fleet that has reduced diesel particulate matter (PM, or soot) emissions from the MTA buses by 85% since 2000 and 97% since 1995.
• Working with the United Nations Environment Program and dozens of government, industry, and NGO stakeholders to create the Partnership for Clean Fuels and Vehicles in 2002. The Partnership works in developing countries around the world to eliminate leaded gasoline where it is still used, and to help countries develop plans to reduce diesel and other vehicle pollution.
• Working with local and global vehicle experts to create clean vehicle pollution plans for Mexico and Brazil that combine clean fuel standards, more stringent emission regulations and accelerated “retirement and retrofit” programs to reduce air pollution in Mexico City and Sao Paolo.
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