Sander Kushen, sander.kushen@sierraclub.org
MORENO VALLEY, Calif. — The Sierra Club announced a settlement with a major warehouse developer today that will require rapid transitions to electric truck fleets years ahead of state mandates. The agreement, which resolves California Environmental Quality Act claims, represents the strongest clean fleet requirements the Sierra Club has ever achieved in a warehouse settlement.
Under the settlement, the approximately 400,000-square-foot warehouse facility’s entire fleet of heavy-duty trucks, vehicles and delivery vans will have to be 100% electric within a set timeline. The warehouse project—known as Compass Danbe Centerpointe—is slated to be built in a densely populated neighborhood in Moreno Valley, a region that already suffers from some of the worst air quality in the United States.
“This settlement is a huge win for the Inland Empire,” said Marla Matime, the board president of Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice—a community-based group that partnered with Sierra Club to secure this settlement. “Our lungs are not for sale and families deserve to live and thrive in their communities without constant pollutants that threaten our livelihoods. We hope that this new, groundbreaking standard is applied to all other warehouse projects moving forward.”
“The residents of Moreno Valley can now breathe a bit easier,” said George Hague, Conservation Chair with the Sierra Club’s Moreno Valley Group. “Warehouse trucks and operations can have profound negative impacts on the community and the environment. This settlement will save the lives of our children, our elderly and our other most vulnerable community members."
Earlier this month, Sierra Club announced a similar settlement with Costco, which covers a proposed 1.7 million-square-foot warehouse project in Tracy. The Costo settlement will require 72 percent of heavy-duty trucks moving goods from the site to be zero-emission by the end of 2027, with a complete transition to electric trucks required for certain operations at start-up.
Both settlements go far beyond California's Advanced Clean Trucks Rule, which requires only 11 percent of new heavy-duty truck sales to be zero-emission by 2025.
Additional environmental protections secured include:
- Onsite solar generation, battery storage systems for backup power and on-site charging infrastructure
- Standards to limit noise pollution
- Strict idling limits and designated truck routes away from sensitive areas
- Money to fund the installation of an air quality monitor station
Large-scale industrial warehouse and logistics centers continue to proliferate throughout California. These giant warehouses and their associated truck traffic emit enormous amounts of health-harming air pollution and greenhouse gasses, and are often located in predominantly low-income communities of color.
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.