Clean truck rule piles pressure on ports

The California Air Resources Board has adopted the Advanced Clean Truck regulation, meaning that by 2045, every new truck sold in California will need to be zero-emission.

“For decades, while the automobile has grown cleaner and more efficient, the other half of our transportation system has barely moved the needle on clean air,” said CARB chair, Mary D. Nichols.

“Diesel vehicles are the workhorses of the economy, and we need them to be part of the solution to persistent pockets of dirty air in some of our most disadvantaged communities. Now is the time – the technology is here and so is the need for investment.”

Stringent limits

Many California neighbourhoods are adjacent to ports, railyards, distribution centres, and freight corridors and experience the heaviest truck traffic. This new rule directly addresses disproportionate risks and health and pollution burdens affecting these communities and puts California on the path for an all zero-emission short-haul drayage fleet in ports and railyards by 2035, and zero-emission “last-mile” delivery trucks and vans by 2040.

In the coming months, CARB will also consider two complementary regulations. The first sets a stringent new limit on NO_x (oxides of nitrogen). This will require that new trucks that still use fossil fuels include the most effective exhaust control technology during the transition to electric trucks. There is also a proposed requirement for larger fleets in the state to transition to electric trucks year over year.

Over 100 trucks outfitted with the cleanest, ultra-low NOx engines are now operating in the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.