Press Releases

April 21, 2023

Annapolis, Maryland — Today, environmental, business, and community groups celebrated as Governor Wes Moore signed the Clean Trucks Act of 2023 (HB 230/SB 224) that passed the General Assembly into law. Sponsored by President Pro Tem Malcolm Augustine and Delegate Sara Love, the legislation requires the Maryland Department of Environment to adopt a regulation known as the Advanced Clean Trucks (ACT) rule by the end of this year.

April 12, 2023

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the Environmental Protection Agency announced a proposal to strengthen federal clean car standards, which will cut emissions from the transportation sector and help protect our health and our climate. The EPA also announced a proposal to strengthen federal standards that would help clean up pollution from heavy-duty trucks and buses.

April 11, 2023

WASHINGTON, DC - Yesterday, the Department of Energy announced a proposal to update a two-decade-old calculation that determines the equivalent fuel economy of electric vehicles, calling the formula outdated and reducing it by more than 70 percent. The proposed rule is being published in the Federal Register today. The Sierra Club and Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) petitioned the DOE in 2021 to update the calculation, which hasn’t been updated since 2000. 

April 6, 2023

Annapolis, Maryland — Today, environmental, business, and community groups celebrated the Maryland General Assembly’s passage of the Clean Trucks Act of 2023 (HB 230/SB 224) sponsored by Delegate Sara Love and President Pro Tem Malcolm Augustine. The bill requires the Maryland Department of Environment to adopt a regulation known as the Advanced Clean Trucks (ACT) rule by the end of this year.

March 31, 2023

WASHINGTON, DC - Today, the EPA issued a waiver under the Clean Air Act, allowing California to move forward with its Advanced Clean Trucks (ACT) rule, which is essential for protecting residents from harmful pollution from heavy-duty vehicles like trucks and buses. The EPA’s decision also enables other states to adopt and enforce those standards.

March 31, 2023

WASHINGTON, DC - Today, the Biden-Harris Administration released a proposed rule for guidance surrounding mineral and manufacturing requirements for the electric vehicle incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act. 

March 30, 2023

BOSTON, MA - Today, Massachusetts announced its formal adoption of the Advanced Clean Cars II (ACC) rule, which requires auto manufacturers to ensure that every new light-duty car sold in the state is a zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) by 2035. This is in line with the requirement for all new passenger cars and light-duty trucks sold in Massachusetts to be zero-emission starting in 2035 that was signed into law in the 2022 climate bill, An Act Driving Clean Energy and Offshore Wind.

March 24, 2023

WASHINGTON — Calling it “a step in the right direction,” the Metro Electric Bus Coalition was pleasantly surprised yesterday when Metro managers released their new, updated Zero-Emission Bus Plan, which shaved three years off the original schedule to transition its 1,600 buses to a zero-emission fleet.  Metro’s target date for reaching a 100-percent zero-emission fleet is now 2042, not 2045. Metro is also planning to stop buying fossil fuel buses by 2027. The coalition urged Metro to move even faster.

March 14, 2023

Cummins just announced a new electrification brand “Accelera” and a project with Blue Bird that plans to put 1,000 electric school buses on the road in the next 12 to 18 months. Cummins is still a part of the Truck and Engine Manufacturers Association, a trade association that has fought for years to delay progress on the transition to electric trucks. The EMA urged the EPA to adopt weak federal NOx standards during the agency’s May 2022 public hearing, though it claims to support strong standards.

March 7, 2023

A diverse coalition of leading climate, environment, and human rights organizations announced today the launch of an auto supply chain industry Leaderboard and global campaign calling on automakers to capitalize on the unprecedented opportunity offered by the electric vehicle (EV) transition to clean up their supply chains. The Leaderboard analyzes the publicly available official reporting of 18 of the leading automotive manufacturers in the world, ranking their efforts to eliminate emissions, environmental harms, and human rights violations from their supply chains while supporting workers’…