Diverse, statewide coalition petitions Illinois Pollution Control Board to move forward with adoption of clean cars, trucks rules

Chicago, IL — Today, clean air advocates, frontline communities, and Illinois residents up and down the state showed their support for a transition to zero emission cars and trucks in Illinois. These stakeholders, led by Sierra Club, Little Village Environmental Justice Organization, Chicago Environmental Justice Network (CEJN), Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Respiratory Health Association, Environmental Defense Fund, and others have petitioned the state Pollution Control Board (PCB) to adopt the Advanced Clean Trucks (ACT), Heavy-Duty Low-NOx Omnibus (HDO) and Advanced Clean Cars II (ACCII) standards. This citizen petition will trigger a mandatory public engagement process initiated by the Pollution Control Board in response to the petition. 

Advocates filed the petition today to urge the Pritzker administration to adopt these critical tailpipe-pollution reduction programs that will clean up the air and protect the health and safety of Illinoisans from Chicago to Cairo. 

Illinois would not be alone in adopting these stronger-than-federal standards. 

• The Advanced Clean Trucks standard has been adopted by Colorado, New Mexico, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and California. 
• The Advanced Clean Cars II standard has been adopted by Colorado, New Mexico, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and California.

Illinois has the right, granted under the Clean Air Act, to adopt stronger than federal clean vehicle standards to address its serious air quality problems. According to the latest State of the Air report from the American Lung Association, Cook, Kane, Lake, Madison and McHenry counties all received a failing grade for ozone pollution. 

If adopted this year, these standards would require vehicle manufacturers to deliver increasing numbers of new zero-emission cars, trucks, and buses for sale in Illinois and reduce health-harming pollution from new diesel engines starting in 2027. Cars that are currently on the road and used cars sold on the secondary market would not be affected.

In response to today’s petition filing, advocates released the following statements.

“EJ communities, public health advocates, and labor organizations across the Chicagoland area have been working to address the diesel pollution problem for years,” said Melanie Minuche, NETZ campaign coordinator with Little Village Environmental Justice Organization. “With expanded warehousing efforts across Illinois, people are being exposed to more and more diesel pollution. Transitioning to electric trucks is one of many necessary solutions needed to address this public health crisis.” 

"This is the next big step Illinois can take in being a national leader on climate solutions," said Jack Darin, Director of the Sierra Club, Illinois Chapter. "Our landmark Climate and Equitable Jobs Act sets a goal of one million electric vehicles on the road in Illinois by 2030, and for Illinois to be 'the best state in the nation in which to drive and manufacture electric vehicles'. By joining more than a dozen other states in adopting these standards, we will be full speed ahead on the road to cleaner, healthier air and supporting Illinois' growing electric vehicle manufacturing sector."

“Illinois sees over 64,000 emergency room visits and nearly 8,000 hospitalizations every year from asthma alone. Studies have consistently shown that air pollution endangers people’s lives, especially the more than a million Illinois residents living with lung diseases like asthma, COPD and lung cancer that make it hard to breathe,” said Brian Urbaszewski, Director, Environmental Health Programs at Respiratory Health Association. “Just as the state required zeroing out harmful fossil fuel exhaust from power plants to protect people’s health, it now must act to eliminate harmful emissions from the millions of vehicles on Illinois roads. No matter where people live in Illinois, they deserve clean air to breathe.”

“Adopting this policy will help increase the number of zero-emission trucks on Illinois roads – a powerful step toward reducing our climate and air pollution, prioritizing equitable outcomes, improving people’s health, saving fleets money and sparking economic growth throughout the state,” said Neda Deylami, Manager, Vehicle Electrification at Environmental Defense Fund. “This is an opportunity to make Illinois an environmental and economic powerhouse.”

“Diesel engines on our roads are not only significant contributors to climate change, but are massive emitters of other pollutants that cause smog and put hazardous particles directly into the air we breathe, said Robert Weinstock, Environmental Advocacy Center at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law and counsel for the Respiratory Health Association and Chicago Environmental Justice Network. “And those diesel engines run most in and through low-income communities and communities of color where we’ve put our highways and warehouses and that already bear disproportionate air pollution burdens and a whole range of other public health barriers and challenges. These standards are urgently needed to address the respiratory health crisis in our most vulnerable neighborhoods.” 

“Scorching heat, poor air quality, and more extreme weather are already here, but will get worse and worse if we don’t take action to reduce transportation pollution, the largest source of emissions in Illinois,” said Muhammed Patel, Transportation Advocate at NRDC.

“Commercial fleet owners and operators want to transition to zero-emission vehicles to capture cost savings, meet emissions and air quality goals, and support the health of their communities, customers, and employees,” said Mel Mackin, Interim Director for State Policy at Ceres. “The Advanced Clean Trucks rule will unlock the benefits of electrification by growing the volume and variety of zero-emission vehicles available to companies across the economy. We look forward to its adoption in Illinois.”

“We cannot continue to allow medium and heavy-duty diesel trucks to operate as they are near our homes, schools, and parks. Our safety and health depend on reform. Adopting this policy is not simply an option - it is necessary for our frontline communities, who continuously feel the effects of diesel pollution and are being made into sacrifice zones." Said Mariah Mata, Policy Fellow at Chicago Environmental Justice Network. 

“Trucks burn oil to move. And what they burn, we breathe. Trucks fill the air around McKinley Park with dark clouds of exhaust, and we shut our windows, hoping to protect our loved ones, hoping their asthma doesn't get worse. Trucks rumble down residential streets in Little Village, shaking us awake, and we wonder if they would have asthma if we lived somewhere else. Trucks idle, and our kids play indoors at recess because it isn't safe to breathe outside,” said Anthony Moser, Founding member of Neighbors for Environmental Justice. “Our community is being sacrificed so trucks can burn oil without consequences, and it must stop. Higher emission standards haven't stopped other states’ economies, but they have protected the people who live there. Here in Illinois, we must do the same.” 

“Cook County is a national hub of freight transportation, and moves nearly half a billion tons of freight on its highways each year. As the demands of ecommerce grow, Illinois must move toward a cleaner and more equitable freight system. Regulations like the Advanced Clean Trucks Rule will reduce harmful emissions from heavy-duty vehicles that contribute to the climate crisis and toxic air quality” said Linda Trey, Clean Transportation Organizer at Union of Concerned Scientists. “While heavy-duty vehicles –like trucks moving the goods we buy to and from ports and warehouses-- make up just 7% of vehicles on Illinois’s roads, they generate about 36% of global warming emissions from the transportation sector. Trucks in Illinois also produce 67% of the state’s nitrogen oxide (NOx) and 59% of the particulate matter emitted by vehicles on the road, which is inequitably experienced by Black, Latine, and Asian Americans living near freight corridors.”