Clean Transportation For All

The Delaware Chapter is hard at work to protect our waterways and sensitive ecosystems and our most vulnerable populations from the harmful impacts of tailpipe emissions. We are working to increase options in Delaware for affordable Electric Vehicles, increase the number of electric public transit buses moving through our cities, and provide schools with clean, electric school buses.

So How Are We Going to Do This?

There are many ways that we can help reduce impacts from transportation emissions in Delaware.

Advanced Clean Cars 2 To Reduce Tailpipe Pollution
The first thing that we need to do is to engage with the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Controls to ensure that Delaware follows through on their pledge to become an Advanced Clean Cars 2 state (ACC2). This would require that auto manufacturers deliver for sale a certain percentage of all their new cars in Delaware as EVs or plug-in hybrid vehicles. You can read more about what being a ACC2 State means for Delaware in this blog post by our Climate and Energy Co-Chair, John Irwin.

Complete Communities
Next, we need to make sure that we are electrifying our public transit and designing what are called “complete communities.” These are communities that encourage in-fill development so the town center and the houses are in close proximity to each other. This helps encourage walking and biking and makes public transportation feasible and affordable.

Electrify Public Transit
Delaware already has over a dozen fully electric public transit buses under the ownership of DART, our public transit operator in Delaware. But we know that we need to do more. That is why we are working with DART, the Public Service Commission, and the Public Advocate to help create affordable electric rates for EV Bus charging stations. That way DART will be able to purchase even more fully electric buses and use them throughout the state! However, we also need to encourage our school districts to convert to electric school buses.

Electrify School Transit
The Sierra Club Delaware Chapter worked with the Mid-Atlantic Alliance for Climate and Health to encourage the state to apply for a recent EPA grant to purchase electric school buses with great success! The state is set to receive 14 fully electric school buses over the next few years! Now we need to make sure the students and communities facing the greatest asthma risks related to air pollution get first choice in where these busses are deployed!

Where Do You Come In?
This is just some of the work we are doing to help encourage electric transit options for all Delawareans! You can join this effort by reaching out to Dustyn Thompson at Dustyn.Thompson@sierraclub.org with the subject, “I Want to Help With Clean Transportation for All!”