Electric Trucks Face Key Vote
California Wildfire Safety Webinar Now Streaming
Delta Costs for So Cal
Save the Date: Summit Set for Nov. 7
Electric Trucks Face Key Vote
By Katherine Garcia
Photo by Jimmy O'Dea
California is days away from potentially adopting a landmark electric truck rule that could dramatically slash diesel pollution along our state’s freight corridors.
The California Air Resources Board, the agency that regulates tailpipe emissions, will consider the Advanced Clean Trucks (ACT) Rule during its board meeting on June 25. The ACT Rule will help cut emissions by requiring that manufacturers produce zero-emission trucks—from large pickup trucks to delivery trucks and semi-trucks—starting in 2024.
Three years ago CARB proposed an electric truck rule that was way too weak to move the needle towards a zero-emission freight future. Since then, Sierra Club California volunteers, supporters and staff have pushed CARB to strengthen the rule to get more electric trucks on California roads sooner.
Along with a coalition of environmental justice groups, health organizations, environmental allies, labor unions and industry partners, we have cited the range of benefits of electric trucks. Including:
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Californians are burdened with harmful health impacts from diesel pollution such as increased risk of asthma attacks, lung cancer, heart attacks, strokes and premature death. The ACT Rule will help save the state approximately $9 billion in health costs. |
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The ACT Rule will help us reduce planet-warming emissions, which is critical for meeting the state’s climate targets. The 2020s must be the decade for climate action. |
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California is a hub for electric truck manufacturing and the state plans to spend millions in charging infrastructure. The ACT Rule will help create family-sustaining, clean energy jobs. |
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Electric trucks are more efficient than their diesel or methane gas counterparts. The rule will save California’s trucking industry an estimated $6 billion, mostly due to fuel cost savings. |
Finally, CARB staff released this spring a stronger standard for board consideration that will help spur the electric truck market. The current proposal calls for an estimated 100,000 electric trucks by 2030; and an estimated 300,000 electric trucks in 2035.
Opponents of the rule are arguing that CARB should delay the rule due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But the electric truck rule is essential for delivering cleaner air to all Californians. CARB cannot stall on a rule that will improve public health and save lives.
During the latest request for written comments, 3,710 Sierra Club California members and supporters signed our petition in strong support of the rule. Thank you to everyone that took part in our campaign. Your support has been essential to persuade the board that Californians want and need electric trucks now.
In these final days before the hearing, we are pressing the board to adopt the rule. Watch for media reports on June 25 and 26 for news of how the board voted.
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, hot conditions and a dry winter are likely to precipitate yet another historic wildfire season in California.
To help you prepare for wildfire season, on May 15, Sierra Club California hosted a webinar about preparation with three wildfire experts, Kate Dargan, Bob Roper and Richard Halsey. The presentation can be accessed here.
Dargan and Roper are co-chairs of the California Fire Safe Council. Halsey is the Director of the California Chaparral Institute. These three esteemed presenters laid out how wildfires ignite homes and what Californians can do to protect themselves and their properties from conflagrations.
Halsey began with a comparison of wildfires in the different regions of California and then transitioned into a well-illustrated explanation of how wildfires ignite homes. Rather than a wall of flames engulfing full structures, he explained, most homes are ignited by tiny embers that fly miles ahead of wildfires and ignite objects near or on a structure itself.
Roper then discussed the challenges of preparing for wildfire during the COVID-19 pandemic. He identified a host of challenges associated with community-scale preparation including pandemic-induced bans on prescribed burns and difficulties associated with forming work crews to complete inspections and mitigation work.
Finally, Dargan discussed how Californians can keep themselves and their homes safe even as community- and state-scale preparation has been hindered. The most effective measures in preventing home ignition are home hardening and defensible space.
Creating defensible space involves clearing flammable vegetation and materials from 100-feet around a structure. Home hardening refers to ensuring a home itself is not prone to ignition by screening attic vents, covering gutters and even preventing birds from nesting on a roof. Dargan outlined extensive resources that can assist homeowners in completing these essential activities.
As unique and outstanding as this particular webinar was, it was just one of several webinars that Sierra Club California staff have hosted in the past few months. Click here to view our youtube channel. Keep your eyes peeled for email announcements about upcoming webinars in topics ranging from the Bay Delta to Biomass Incineration.
Join us for a webinar to learn about how an $11-billion proposal to build a single tunnel in the San Francisco Bay Delta will impact water ratepayer costs in Southern California.
“The Delta Tunnel Project: Not a Solution for Southern California’s Water Needs”
--presented by Molly Culton and Brandon Dawson
Sierra Club California’s one-day summit will go virtual this year.
The annual one-day summit launched last year in Pasadena. This year, we anticipated moving the event to Northern California to make sure our activists in that part of the state had a chance to attend.
Then the coronavirus arrived. Given uncertainties about what the virus situation will be like in the fall, our volunteer committee organizing the annual summit has opted to produce a lively virtual event that will allow people all over the state to attend without leaving the comfort of their homes.
All that attendees need is a computer or smartphone with an internet connection.
The summit will be on Saturday, November 7, from about 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Watch this newsletter for details, including registration information. The registration fee will be on a sliding scale and nobody will be turned away due to lack of funds.
November 7 happens to follow election day, so the summit panelists and speakers will be illuminating what happened and what we can do going forward to advance a clean environment, equity and social justice in California.
So mark your calendars now to tune into the Sierra Club California annual summit in November.
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