California has just made history by becoming the first state to pass a standard requiring diesel truck and van manufacturers to transition to all-electric sales by 2045.
The California Air Resources Board (CARB) voted in favor of the provision during a virtual meeting after listening to more than 100 speakers, according to Fresno Bee. Known as the Advanced Clean Truck Rule, the rule aims to have zero-emission electric trucks on the road by 2024 and to have nothing but zero-emission electric vehicles by 2045.
“Many California neighborhoods, especially Black and Brown, low-income and vulnerable communities, live, work, play, and attend ports-adjacent schools, fairs, distribution centers, and freight corridors and experience heavier truck traffic.” CARB explained in a statement. “This new rule directly addresses the disproportionate risks and health and pollution burdens that plague these communities and puts California on the road to a zero-emission short-haul trawl fleet in ports and railroads by 2035, and the delivery of ‘last mile’ emission-free trucks and vans by 2040. “
In addition to helping minority and low-income communities, the rule will also help California meet its climate change goals.
“Trucks are the single largest source of vehicle air pollution, accounting for 70 percent of smog-causing pollution and 80 percent of carcinogenic soot even though they number only 2 million out of 30 million vehicles. registered in the state, “said the CARB. noted in his statement.
“The regulations were necessary to meet the goals set by both our council and the governor to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, but also to meet federal air quality standards and protect people’s health,” Tony Brasil, CARB’s head of transportation and clean technology arm, told Salon.
Karen Cesar, the board’s information officer, said there were some interest groups that expressed opposition to the new regulation.
“Engine manufacturers, the manufacturers that are going to have to build vehicles, support the idea of going to electric vehicles over time, but they would have preferred us to make a regulation that requires fleets to buy trucks instead of requiring manufacturers to produce them, “explained Cesar. Brazil added that the board plans to approve future regulation to address those concerns.
“We are going to come back with another regulation that will require fleets to buy the trucks they made, but that will not be likely for a year or two,” Brazil explained. He told Salon that “it is developing now and will be phased in over time. So it will not be as if these companies have to go out tomorrow and make a full transition to an electric fleet. The transition will be made over time.” .
As global warming continues to reach crisis levels, scientists increasingly agree that alternative energy sources will be necessary.
“We will also need policies that wisely balance competing interests based on some sort of rational analysis of the facts. No energy technology has its downsides,” said Ken Caldeira of the Department of Global Ecology at the Carnegie Institute for Science in 2018. “This It cannot happen only in the United States or Europe. The entire world needs to develop based on near-zero emission technologies, and therefore would need to enact similar policies … with so many limited resource demands, and such unequal distribution of wealth, this is still a challenge. “
