Trucks Clips: November 13, 2024

 

 

Lee Zeldin’s Stairway To (Deregulatory) Heaven — “President-elect Donald Trump blindsided the climate world Monday by choosing a personal ally with a mixed conservation record and little regulatory experience to lead the Environmental Protection Agency. Lee Zeldin, a former Republican representative from Long Island, will captain Trump’s second-term deregulatory agenda if confirmed by the Senate. Zeldin’s main credentials seem to be his loyalty to Trump: He supported the former president through both his first impeachment trial and his post-2020-election bid to remain in power. At the same time, his past acknowledgments that climate change is real and support for crackdowns on some toxic chemicals don’t entirely match Trump’s campaign rhetoric — even if Zeldin cast a lot of votes against climate and clean air and water legislation. … Zeldin will quarterback efforts to roll back President Joe Biden’s marquee climate rules for power, petroleum, cars and trucks. Trump said in a Monday statement that his ally would ‘ensure fair and swift deregulatory decisions that will be enacted in a way to unleash the power of American businesses.’” [Politico, 11/12/24 (=)]

 

Trump's Pick For EPA Chief Set To 'Roll Back Regulations' — “President-elect Donald Trump on Monday picked former New York Rep. Lee Zeldin to oversee the Environmental Protection Agency under his coming administration. In a statement posted to X, the former Twitter platform, Zeldin called it an honor to join President Trump’s Cabinet as EPA Administrator. ‘Looking forward to getting straight to work as part of President Trump’s Cabinet to unleash U.S. energy dominance, make America the AI capital of the world, bring American auto jobs back home, and so much more,’ he posted Tuesday morning. … Heavy truck emissions, specifically the removal of legislation that aims to make trucking battery electric, are front-burner action items for the American Trucking Associations. California Governor Gavin Newsom has already called for the convening of a legislative Special Session in a preemptive strike against potential emissions rollbacks that could impact California, home of some of the most stringent emissions standards in the country.” [Commercial Carrier Journal, 11/12/24 (=)]

 

Trump Stunner EPA Pick Signals A New Playbook — “Zeldin has a big job ahead of him. The next Trump administration will want to turn back many of the Biden-era initiatives at EPA. The agency has grown in staffing substantially, with roughly 16,000 employees, as well as funding. Biden’s signature climate and infrastructure laws slate $100 billion combined to EPA to clean up Superfund sites, provide electric school buses and finance clean energy. Marie Owens Powell, president of American Federation of Government Employees Council 238, said in a statement they look forward to working with Zeldin to fulfill the agency’s mission. ‘Our focus as civil servants at the EPA has and remains protecting our communities, fighting against the climate emergency, and ensuring every American has clean air and drinking water,’ Powell said. Yet the ex-congressman appears eager to turn back regulations. In a Fox News interview Monday, Zeldin said Trump had ‘15, 20 different priorities’ as the president-elect looks to slash rules and boost energy production. ‘I think we have to be clear-eyed about this, and this is not going to be the status quo at the EPA,’ Curbelo said. ‘Changes are coming, they’re definitely going to want to deregulate, streamline, make the agency more efficient, and I’m sure that will make some waves and cause some anxiety and discomfort.’” [E&E News, 11/12/24 (=)]

 

Trump's EPA Pick, Lee Zeldin, Could Press Deregulatory Agenda On Day 1 — “President-elect Donald Trump has already begun announcing cabinet position picks along with a plan to supercharge the nomination process and deregulatory agenda with one of his first official hiring decisions going to former Long Island, New York, congressman and 2022 Republican gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin. Zeldin, ‘with a very strong legal background, has been a true fighter for America First policies,’ wrote Trump in a press release announcing the pick. ‘He will ensure fair and swift deregulatory decisions that will be enacted in a way to unleash the power of American businesses, while at the same time maintaining the highest environmental standards, including the cleanest air and water on the planet.’ Zeldin echoed that sentiment, saying in an appearance on Fox News that on ‘day one and the first 100 days we have the opportunity to roll back regulations that are forcing businesses to struggle.’” [Overdrive, 11/12/24 (=)]

 

Fleet Owners Are Gearing Up For The New Emission Standards — “The upcoming Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requirements for heavy-duty trucks are already affecting the planning and purchasing decisions of commercial truck fleets. Gearing up for the new emission standards is proving to be no easy haul for fleet owners. These requirements apply to original equipment manufacturers, not to owners and operators. ‘Many trucking companies are considering the way forward and figuring out their fleet plans today. They’re expanding their annual decision making to cover the next three years,’ said Jacob Brazier, senior vice president of sales for Transport Enterprise Leasing (TEL). Manufacturers will certainly step up and meet stricter standards. However, one major concern is the price increase anticipated with the new models. Another concern is reliability. History tells us that new models incorporating new technologies can have reliability issues. In 2008, some models had reliability issues when meeting the exhaust gas recirculation requirements. Also, in 2010 with the selective catalytic reduction requirements. The issues result in vehicle breakdowns, costly repairs and revenue loss due to downtime for fleets.” [The Trucker, 11/12/24 (=)]

 

 

BYD

 

BYD Commercial Vehicle Sales Up 49% — “After some recent contributions from Larry Evans and big news coming from BYD itself, I started digging into BYD’s monthly production and sales reports. The big business is the passenger vehicle business. However, BYD also reports production and sales of its buses (electric) and production and sales of its other commercial vehicles (electric). Let’s start with BYD’s bus sales. As you can see via the chart below (which covers January–October 2023 and January–October 2024), sales are up and down. I’m sure that some months include big orders and other months not so much. The month with the most sales was October 2023 (701 buses), and the month with the least sales was August 2023 (121 buses). Overall, across the first 10 months of 2024, BYD sold 3,756 electric buses, which is up 7% from the first 10 months of 2023 — 3,509 sales. Jumping to other commercial vehicles, there’s more of a trend here — or two trends. Sales declined more or less gradually in 2023, and then they rose steadily in 2024. Don’t ask me why — I have no idea. The best month in these time periods for sales was February 2023 (1756 units sold), while the worst month was clearly October 2023 (37 units sold).” [CleanTechnica, 11/12/24 (=)]

 

Range Energy

 

This Climate Startup Is Challenging Tesla In The Race To Electrify Big Rigs — “On the road to electrifying vehicles, cars and small trucks are getting there. Big rigs, however, pose bigger hurdles. The trouble with electrifying tractor-trailer trucks is that the tractor component needs more power than the current charging infrastructure can handle and the necessary charging time is long. Major truck manufacturers such as Volvo, Freightliner and Tesla are introducing electric tractor-trailer trucks, but that is still a tiny and inefficient market. Big rigs make up just 10% of the vehicles on the road, but they account for nearly 30% of total vehicle carbon emissions. Now one startup, California-based Range Energy, is focused not on the tractor but on the trailer. They are introducing electrified trailers that power and propel themselves so the tractor has less to pull. ‘Everything that is built into the tractor is really built to manage the load of the trailer properly, and what we’re saying is, ‘Well, why don’t we do that directly through our Range system by electrifying the trailer in a way that has never been done before?’ said Ali Javidan, CEO of Range Energy.” [CNBC, 11/12/24 (=)]

 

 

RV Sales To Be Banned Across Six States As California Climate Rules Take Effect — “Diesel motorhome sales are set to be halted in several states at the start of next year due to a new climate rule from California being enacted, according to RVtravel. Motorhome sales are being prevented in California, Washington, Oregon, New York, Massachusetts and New Jersey if the vehicles do not meet certain emission requirements based on regulations from the California Air Resources Board (CARB), according to RVtravel. CARB amended its Advanced Clean Truck regulations on Oct. 24, which require all vehicles over 8,500 pounds to produce zero emissions. Motorhome owners in the six states will not be allowed to register a recreational vehicle (RV) that is not in compliance with the climate regulation, according to RVtravel. Residents of the six states will not be allowed to register an RV that is not in compliance with the climate regulation. California has enacted various green energy policies in recent years, including filing a major lawsuit against Chevron and other oil companies seeking climate change damages in September 2023 and enacting a landmark corporate emissions disclosure requirement in October 2023. The state has seen drastically higher gas prices amid its policies and regulations aimed at cracking down on fuel refiners.” [The Daily Caller, 11/12/24 (-)]

 

RV Sales To Halt In California, Washington, Oregon, New York, Massachusetts And New Jersey As Climate Rules Take Effect — “A new climate regulation from California is set to disrupt the RV industry, leading to the halt of diesel motorhome sales in several states starting next year. The California Air Resources Board (CARB) has amended its Advanced Clean Truck regulations, which now require all vehicles over 8,500 pounds to be zero-emission vehicles. This stringent regulation will impact states like Washington, Oregon, New York, Massachusetts, and New Jersey, which often adopt California’s emissions standards. As a result, RV owners in these states will be unable to register diesel motorhomes that do not meet the new emission standards. This could significantly impact the RV industry, particularly for manufacturers and dealers specializing in diesel motorhomes. California has been at the forefront of climate change initiatives, implementing various policies aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. These policies have included lawsuits against oil companies, corporate emissions disclosure requirements, and strict regulations on fuel refiners. However, these measures have also led to higher fuel prices for California residents.” [Tampa Free Press, 11/12/24 (-)]

 

 

California

 

California’s New Clean-Fuel Plan Makes Old Problems Worse — “For years, environmental groups and climate and energy experts have complained that California’s landmark clean-fuels program, the Low Carbon Fuel Standard, misdirects billions of dollars per year to subsidize unsustainable crop-based and cow-manure-derived biofuels. Instead of addressing those longtime concerns, on Friday the California Air Resources Board approved highly controversial amendments to the decade-and-a-half-old program that critics say could cause the price of gasoline and diesel fuel to spike across the state. … Another big flaw of the LCFS program is its unique treatment of methane captured from dairy manure lagoons as carbon-negative — that is, as if it removes carbon from the atmosphere. This makes dairy biogas digester projects extremely valuable for fossil-fuel producers because they can use a relatively small amount of dairy biogas credits to offset much greater real-world carbon emissions from the fossil fuels they sell. The same crediting structure also permits fuel-burning trucks or fossil fuel–based hydrogen to be considered as cleaner than EV trucks or hydrogen made with carbon-free electricity, as long as dairy biogas is used as an offset.” [Canary Media, 11/12/24 (~)]

 

Nonprofit To Buy Up To 500 Battery-Electric Drayage Trucks — “A nonprofit coalition plans to buy as many as 500 Class 8 battery-electric trucks and lease them to smaller drayage fleets and owner-operators. The first customers are set to be carriers operating at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach — the largest two ports in the U.S. by import volume. Climate United Fund intends to spend up to $250 million to purchase the Class 8 trucks, it said. On Oct. 29, the nonprofit issued a request for proposals to truck makers interested in selling it battery-electric trucks. An announcement on the identity of the original equipment manufacturers participating in the program is expected in January or February, a Climate United spokeswoman said Nov. 12. The trucks must be bought and built within three years of the RFP being issued. The nonprofit, which received a $6.97 billion award from the Environmental Protection Agency’s National Clean Investment Fund, said it will be prioritizing vehicles with domestically made parts and assembled in the U.S.” [Overdrive, 11/12/24 (=)]

 

Colorado

 

West Aurora School District Looks At Options For Adding Electric Buses — “West Aurora School District 129 is looking further into a proposal to add electric school buses to its fleet. The proposal to add 27 electric buses to replace some older diesel models was brought back to be school board for discussion recently. If made, the move would potentially involve more than one-third of the district’s bus fleet. ‘We wanted to dive deeper and take this opportunity to take a pause,’ West Aurora School District Assistant Superintendent of Operations Angie Smith told board members. … Electric bus prices are almost three times the cost of a regular bus, and even with potential rebates and incentives, they would have likely been twice the cost of a diesel-fueled bus, she said. Some changes have made the school district’s administration look closer at a proposal to make a switch to add some electric buses, including competitive pricing, federal funding and rebates, officials said. For instance, Smith previously noted the district applied for and was awarded a $5.5 million grant through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean School Bus Program. The availability of incentives has been a key factor in the district’s consideration of adding electric buses.” [The Chicago Tribune, 11/12/24 (+)]

 

Michigan

 

TCAPS To Purchase Electric School Bus — “Traverse Area Public Schools students will be driven around on an electric school bus in 2025. The announcement, made at Monday’s Board of Education meeting, said the district was awarded $280,000 through the Michigan Clean Bus Energy Grant program. The award will allow the district to purchase a standard 77-seat electric-powered school bus next year and run a pilot program to test the technology. … With the additional grant funds, the board voted unanimously to purchase the bus for a total not to exceed $449,312, which includes a 15 percent contingency. This is more than twice the cost of a regular bus, at $197,000, but at no cost to the district. The district had previously competed for, and won, a United States Environmental Protection Agency’s 2023 Clean School Bus Program rebate worth $200,000 to be used for the purchase of an electric bus. This was not enough to cover the cost of the purchase and additional funding was pursued. The recent grant provides enough to cover the bus and additional costs. The costs for the charger and installation could be covered by the grant funds, said VanWagoner, but those details are still being worked out by the district. ‘(The charger and installation) is not in the grant specifically, so we have to amend it,’ said Christine Thomas-Hill, TCAPS assistant superintendent of finance and operations.” [Traverse City Record-Eagle, 11/12/24 (+)]

 

North Carolina

 

Video: CMS Puts Its First Electric School Buses To Use — “In his 35 years behind the wheel, Richard Thomas has seen plenty of evolution for the big yellow school bus. Thomas started off with a traditional gas-powered school bus back in the ‘70s, but now he’s the first driver in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools to take on an electric school bus. ‘A 1979 Chevy five-speed’ was Thomas’ first school bus model, he told Channel 9′s Jonathan Lowe. ‘You worked for your money back then, let me put it like that,’ he said of the manual gearbox. ‘When the automatics came around ‘86, it was a new thing with CMS.’ Today, 95% of school buses burn diesel fuel. But with the climate change era now fully upon us, science is focused on engineering a newer, cleaner version of school transportation. ‘We’re trying to move towards alternative fuels, certainly they’re cheaper for us to maintain, cheaper to operate, and they’re better for the environment,’ said CMS Executive Director of Transportation Adam Johnson. … Earlier this year, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper announced nearly $27 million in federal funds to purchase 114 electric school buses for the state. About 98% went to low-income, rural, or tribal communities.” [WSOC-TV, 11/12/24 (=)]

 

North Carolina School System Rolls Out Big Change — “Channel 9 found Richard Thomas who has been driving a school bus a long long time. He started back in the 70s driving a school bus in Charlotte. And now he will be the first driver in Charlotte-Mecklenburg to drive an electric school buss in the district. … Right now there are 3 electric school buses on the road in Charlotte Mecklenburg but next year there will be a whole lot more. According to the school’s director of transportation there will be 27 electric school buses on the road in North Carolina’s largest county, This North Carolina school system is rolling out big changes for getting kids to the classroom. North Carolina school (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) Directly from Channel 9,’ Earlier this year, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper announced nearly $27 million in federal funds to purchase 114 electric school buses for the state. About 98% went to low-income, rural, or tribal communities.’ Of course these new electric buses are quiet and eco friendly and right now will be on shorter routes. To learn more check out all the details from wsoctv.com. Watch out for these new buses, they do look a little different but have that same precious cargo.” [WSOC-TV, 11/12/24 (=)]

 

Pennsylvania

 

'Clean Buses': EASD Considers Applying For Rebate To Switch From Diesel To Propane — “Easton Area School District is considering a rebate program that could help to replace older buses and help the environment, officials say. At the school board’s standing committee meetings Tuesday night, Ben Bernhart, a recently hired transportation manager for the district, presented a proposal for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Bus Rebate Program. Bernhart is seeking the board’s approval to apply for the rebate, which would grant the district $30,000 for each propane-powered bus that it purchases while trading in a diesel school bus. The vote on whether to apply will take place at the board’s next regular meeting. ‘As part of requirement for the grant, you do have to trade in a diesel-powered bus that does not have a diesel emission system in it, so we have plenty of those,’ Bernhart said. The district currently has 88 full-sized school buses that are operable, with 34 school buses that are 15 years or older in operation.” [WFMZ-TV, 11/12/24 (=)]

 

Rhode Island

 

Pawtucket Secures Largest Share Of EPA's Electric Buses For 2026 — “Out of 45 new electric school buses being allocated to the state of Rhode Island through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean School Bus program, 22 will be operating in the Pawtucket school district in 2026. On Oct. 9, the EPA, along with U.S. Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse, U.S. Rep. Gabe Amo, Pawtucket Mayor Donald Grebien, and Pawtucket School Supt. Patricia Royal, gathered to celebrate the allocation of the buses to five Rhode Island districts including Pawtucket, Providence, Jamestown, Lincoln, and Westerly during Children’s Health Month. Officials also highlighted multiple benefits of the Clean School Bus Program, including reducing air pollution, protecting children’s health, and saving school districts money. Transportation provider First Student was allocated $12 million total for all five districts, with $7.63 million going toward funding the 22 buses in Pawtucket and $690,000 toward two new clean buses for Providence Preparatory Charter, $910,000 to five new clean buses in Jamestown, $2 million for 10 new clean buses in Lincoln, and $1.165 million for six new clean buses in Westerly.” [The Valley Breeze, 11/12/24 (+)]

 

West Virginia

 

GreenPower Ready To Deliver Electric School Buses To West Virginia — “Specifically, in March 2023, the US state of West Virginia announced it was acquiring 41 GreenPower custom-built, battery-electric school buses for $15 million. The models include Type D BEAST and Type A Nano BEAST school buses. The order has since grown to 50 electric vehicles with a price tag of 18.5 million dollars. The funding comes from the US Environment Protection Agency (EPA). GreenPower President Brendan Riley explained the increase to the 50 school buses, saying Monongalia County School District was required to pay an additional $550,000 from its own school bus replenishment funds since the county is defined as non-priority by EPA. ‘This electrification project is the type of activity Congress envisioned when it created the Clean School Bus Program in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law,’ Riley continued. ‘It is a collaborative effort between seven West Virginia school districts, GreenPower, GreenPower’s statewide school bus dealer and an infrastructure provider to replace outdated, dirty diesel buses with a safe, sustainable and sensible clean alternative to get kids to and from school and extracurricular activities in a healthier environment.’” [Electrive, 11/12/24 (+)]

 

 

RESPONSES TO THIS EMAIL ARE NOT MONITORED

 

 

To receive Trucks Clips and other Clean Vehicles Coalition (CVC) materials, please contact:

 

RILEY GILLIS – Program Assistant (He/Him)

(rgillis@partnershipproject.org)  

 

 

For any other questions or comments, please contact:

 

MITCH DUNN – Director of Media Monitoring and Analysis, Beehive Research (He/Him)

(mitch@beehivedc.com)

 

 

***