6.24.20

This week the California Air Resources Board can show how to respond to our economic, health, and environmental crises with a bold plan that creates jobs while cleaning the air in many of our state’s poorest, most polluted communities.

California is on the brink of adopting the nation’s first electric truck mandate through the Advanced Clean Truck Rule. This rule promises to provide a critical market signal necessary to transform one of the most polluting industries — dirty truck transportation — into one of the cleanest and greenest.

If adopted, the state will start requiring a percentage of new trucks sold in California to be zero emission beginning in 2024. The rule will help create jobs and spur foundational economic development by inducing more in-state manufacturing jobs, reducing long-term trucking costs, and accelerating investments in electric vehicle charging infrastructure.

This model rule will also save us $9 billion in health costs by reducing the negative health impacts from air pollution that disproportionately affect low-income and Black, Latinx, and indigenous communities. In San Diego’s Portside communities — Barrio Logan, Logan Heights, Sherman Heights, and adjacent National City — air monitoring conducted through the AB 617 Community Air Protection Program has confirmed that diesel exhaust is the main pollutant of concern for residents. Members of the San Diego Air Pollution Control District’s AB 617 Portside Steering Committee — comprised of public health experts, organized labor, environmental and social justice organizations, local industry and representatives of local and regional government agencies and CalTrans — agreed to sign onto a letter calling on CARB to adopt the ACT rule to accelerate the transition to Zero Emission trucks to protect the health of the communities they serve.

Electrification of our transportation industry is one of the most significant and forward-thinking economic stimulus and job creation strategies we can pursue. Before the pandemic started, California’s electric vehicle market supported 275,600 jobs statewide. Growing the EV market is essential to combating air pollution, cooling our over-heated planet, and creating high paying jobs. In California, the electric car industry pays an average annual wage of $91,300, well above the average annual wage across all industries of $68,500.

The electric vehicle industry was the 6th largest source of job growth in California’s manufacturing sector in 2018 and zero-emission vehicle technology is now our second most valuable export — behind only aviation equipment. Southern California in particular has reaped the economic benefits of clean transportation investment with the five-county region boasting 119,200 workers in a variety of electric vehicle industry trades including software, design and full production sites that build passenger cars, shared mobility vehicles, medium- and heavy-duty trucks, drayage vehicles and buses.

The marketplace for electric trucks is already growing. Orders for tens of thousands of electric truck have poured in from Fortune 500 companies like Anheuser-Busch and PepsiCo that are eager to reduce operating costs and curb emissions. Penske Leasing, a major transportation logistics leader, is already incorporating electric trucks into their fleet and the U.S. Postal Service is operating electric mail delivery vans throughout CA.

The Great COVID-19 Recession is like no other. While whole industries have been decimated, we’ve seen only a modest decrease in diesel consumption, and truck traffic from Amazon, UPS, FedEx and other delivery services has actually increased. As we sheltered in place, our shift to online retail accelerated, underscoring the need to clean-up and electrify our goods movement industry. At a time when a respiratory virus threatens our nation, we must aggressively address air pollution, asthma, and climate change.

California has always led the way in advancing economic and environmental innovations. Let’s continue to lead the nation and the world and drive towards an electric truck future through the Advanced Clean Truck Rule. It’s time to give industry the market signal they’ve long-awaited and in so doing, bring home the high-paying jobs and clean air we need to build an equitable California for all.