Trucks Clips: April 4, 2024

 

 

Op-Ed: Forget The Carrot. EPA Uses Stick. — “If the Environmental Protection Agency aimed to create a hard-to-achieve regulation that makes trucking more expensive, it succeeded with GHG3. If regulators and the environmentally focused Biden Administration want to clean up the air, they need to work more closely with the men and women moving our goods across the country—not against them. Federal regulators finalized Phase 3 of the lofty Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standards, known as GHG3, on March 29. These new rules push commercial vehicle manufacturers to build and sell more zero-emission equipment to fleets. The regulations envision a nationwide freight network supporting Class 8 EVs and hydrogen-powered trucks. It’s an exciting vision, but exciting doesn’t make it realistic. Rather than letting truck OEMs and the free market lead us into decarbonization, the EPA is telling OEMs they must sell more zero-emission commercial vehicles between 2027 and 2032. Forget offering fleets a carrot to encourage them to improve freight’s carbon footprint. This stick approach whacks away any thoughts of reasonable timelines to build out alternative fuel infrastructure to support trucking, the backbone of the U.S. economy.” [Heavy-Duty Trucking, 4/3/24 (-)]

 

 

 

Oregon

 

PGE's Electric School Bus Fund Has A Record Year — “The Beaverton School District is a leader in the Pacific Northwest when it comes to electric vehicles. The school district, along with many others like Corbett, are the latest recipients of PGE’s Electric School Bus Fund, a grant that helps districts cover the upfront costs in the transition to electric buses. That fund is having a banner year. ‘2020 through last year, we were able to fund 30 buses ... then in this next year, it looks like we’ll be able to help get another (25) buses on the road,’ said Elyssa Lawrence with PGE. She said the success of the grant is directly tied to the Oregon Department of Environment Quality’s (DEQ) Clean Fuels Program. She explained that the DEQ program ‘helped create a market place, where we could create a revenue stream from our residential customers who create these credits.’ The credits are earned by customers who purchase electric vehicles, according to Lawrence. The credits are then sold to industries needing to pay for their excess emissions. ‘That money doesn’t come out of customer rates; it’s really what goes into funding these types of grants like electric school buses,’ Lawrence said.” [KGW-TV, 4/3/24 (=)]

 

 

 

RESPONSES TO THIS EMAIL ARE NOT MONITORED

 

To receive Cars Clips or other Clean Vehicles Coalition (CVC) materials, please contact Al-Batool Ibrahim

(aibrahim@partnershipproject.org)

 

For any other questions or comments, please contact Mitch Dunn

(mitch@beehivedc.com)