Ruben Aronin, Senior Vice President

I’m hopeful that the environmental movement will succeed in convincing Governor Newsom and the California Air Resources Board to seize the moment to set stringent requirements to set the expiration date for internal combustion engine cars and trucks in 2022. Doing so will eliminate up to 50% of California’s greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution while creating extraordinary investment and job growth opportunities for decades to come.

I’m nervous that the midterm elections will not go well for Congressional leaders, Governors and even Mayors who want to tackle the climate and health crises.

I’m excited that communities across the country are exercising their power to demand safer streets for people and are seeking ways to make bikes, trains and electric cars, buses and trucks more accessible to neighborhoods experiencing the most pollution. I’m also excited to see more and more EV school buses taking kids to school. How insane is it that we allow our most precious natural resource – our kids – go to school in toxic dirty diesel buses?

Sam Emmersen, Vice President Programs

I am excited to continue to work with the dynamic group of passionate advocates trying to clean up air pollution from heavy-duty trucks and passenger vehicles in our pursuit to get the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to adopt a strong updated Clean Fleets Rule and Advanced Clean Cars Rule in 2022. I am hopeful that working with these advocates to continue to push CARB on these clean vehicle rules will result in California regaining its status as a leader in protecting public health and advancing clean vehicle technologies that other states will emulate.

Chelsea Lee, Intern

With the recent IPCC report, I am nervous about the state of the environment, and I hope that our governments, businesses, and communities feel a sense of urgency to mitigate climate change for the well-being of future generations. 

However, I also look forward to upcoming opportunities to implement new aggressive climate change goals and policies.  Disadvantaged communities bear the greatest burdens of the nation’s transportation and goods movement systems. The adoption and implementation of stringent rules to reduce harmful emissions and clean the air will especially benefit these communities, providing much-needed relief from severe health and environmental impacts. I’m hopeful that policymakers will do right by these communities and fight for environmental justice in the new year.

Asma Mahdi, Senior Policy Director

Over the past two years we’ve seen a wave of social movements from defending Black lives to advocating for Land Back — a call on leaders to transfer decision-making power over land to Indigenous communities — to the urgent cries of an ever-changing climate that is physically displacing mass populations of the most vulnerable. I hope the year ahead challenges us to welcome discomfort and see it as an opportunity for growth. Growth to move beyond statements of solidarity for racial justice and into actionable steps and to achieve a future we can all thrive in. Growth that grounds us in our abilities to connect with ourselves, our communities, and our ability to be care-givers and care-receivers to the lands that surround us.

2020 was hard. 2021 was a different kind of hard. 2022 will be similar and it will be different. I look forward to leaning into what will set this coming year apart from the rest as we strive for a more just future.