Colorado pollution regulators say they won’t be finalizing long-anticipated clean truck rules before 2023. This has prompted outrage from environmental groups that claim that it is crucial to act now in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and ozone-causing ozone that can harm impacted communities.
Key groups that are involved in energy transition rulemaking have stated that they were assured that rules for cleaning up the truck industry would be completed this year as part of Colorado laws that commit to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030.
Instead, staff from state agencies prepared materials to be presented at Thursday’s Air Quality Control Commission monthly Meeting. They announced a 2023 target for truck rules and informed environmental justice groups about the delays in bitter telephone consultations this month. The most restrictive type of clean truck rulesCalifornia has already passedIt is mandatory that at least a certain percentage be zero-emission trucks are sold, whether they are powered by electric engines or hydrogen fuel cells.
A swift and aggressive approach to cleaning the air has been delayed too long. This is especially true for Black and Brown families.
Colorado has half-million medium-to-heavy duty trucks. This includes everything from step-in delivery trucks to garbage haulers to semi-trailers to utility fleets. Many are diesel-powered, and can travel hundreds upon hundreds of miles each day. They also have engines that can run up to 8 to 10 hours per hour.
Their emissions are also concentrated within warehouses and industrial areas where lower-income residents have the opportunity to afford housing. These neighborhoods are also surrounded by heavily traveled interstates and other delivery routes. Commerce City and North Denver, for instance, are also subject to daily pollution The state’s two largest industrial emitters are the Suncor petroleum refining plant and the Cherokee power plants.
Our communities are told that they must wait for environmental justice, for action that will improve our children’s health, and to wait because it would be too burdensome for others, the environmental justice coalitions statement stated.
The Colorado Energy Office stated in a statement that the “Advanced Clean Truck Rules” in 2022 were only a placeholder on Air Quality Control Commission’s calendar. It also stated that the states commitment for a clean fuel transition for trucks was not changing.
Moving quickly to enact fleet incentives for clean trucks, buses, and charging infrastructure to support the transition and to move on the governors’ proposals to the legislature to large-scale investments to transition to electric school bus technology is the best way to make an immediate impact on getting clean trucks on the roads. This was the energy office’s response to questions regarding the 2023 clean truck mandates.
On a conference call this week, the energy office and the health department informed environmental stakeholders that they would like more time to include environmental justice advocates and to allow trucking industry supply chains issues to ease so companies can help with the rules and purchase clean trucks.
These justice groups responded that they are all involved most were there on the call and that their constituents have already stated that they want Colorado to adopt California-style clean trucks rules immediately. Officials had promised to do so.
Truckers complain that equipment is not ready
Trucking trade groups claim they want to contribute to the fight against emissions. But they back the argument of the states that supply delays, lack of cleaner models, and other factors hinder any real change to clean truck regulations anytime soon.
I have people who paid full-price for a Tesla tractor three or four years ago but haven’t received it. Then they get an email stating that it will be 2023. Greg Fulton is the president of Colorado Motor Carriers Association. He said that Colorado carriers have newer, cleaner-burning models of truck on their lots, but they can’t put them on the road yet, because the computer chips to detect emissions are difficult to obtain.
State statistics show that medium and heavy trucks make up almost 25% of greenhouse gas emissions. However, they only account for 10% of all vehicles on the road. Local vehicle traffic also contributes to climate change gasses. The EPA is about to reclassify the northern Front Range as a serious violator of ozone limits.
The state wanted more input by justice groups. This offended the entire environmental coalition, which was seeking transportation limits. Weve been talking about it for over a year, Aaron Kressig, Western Resource Advocates transportation electrification manager.
The administration wants to move quickly with a thoughtful approach towards clean trucking. However, with a pandemic-induced challenge to the global supply chain affecting the daily lives and livelihoods of people, it is not a time to make these kinds of misguided statements, according to the energy office statement.
The administration is working as fast as possible to get it right. Conor Cahill, a spokesperson for Gov., stated that the priority is to get the investment plans in place for transportation electrification enterprises and to quickly pass Governors clean air package which includes a clean component for trucking in order to establish the strongest rule-making. Jared Polis
Ean Tafoya director of Colorado GreenLatinos said that if the Air Quality Control Commissioners don’t urge state staff to move faster on the clean truck rules then an environmental coalition will try to force a quicker rulemaking process through a petition process. A similar coalition was successful in gaining a similar speedup at the Water Quality Control Commission. It was concerned about increased protections for Clear Creek River and South Platte River.
California’s Clean Truck Rules, which Colorado and other states have adopted as models, require truck equipment producers to sell a higher percentage of cleaner vehicles each ye. While these will initially be electric vehicles that are being developed, manufacturers are also developing hydrogen fuel cell models that can carry heavier loads and travel longer distances. Colorado in 2019 adopted a similar mandate to allow manufacturers of passenger vehicles for more zero-emission vehicles. Officials claim this has helped boost EV sales.
Colorado will need to accelerate the construction of an electric charging infrastructure both for passenger cars and trucks in order to prepare for the mandates. Polis 2022-23 budget proposal includes large spending to help local communities acquire school buses, which is one of the first truck types that has produced market-ready electric models.
According to environmental groups, they believe that the Polis administration is moving too slowly on greenhouse gas emissions instead of responding quickly to public cues. They claim that the same thing happened last year when the Air Pollution Control Division prepared rules to encourage large employers to reduce commuting-related emissions. The trip proposal was dropped after strong opposition from trade and business groups.
There is every indication that something will be done in the transportation sector to move us closer to our greenhouse gas roadmap goals. But then, Kressig stated, “There’s an inexplicable delay.”
Fulton said that the supply of clean energy alternatives for trucking is so limited that the state may prefer to focus on the retirement of older, less efficient diesels. He said that even if a trucking company is using a pre-2000 diesel truck, it can still reduce emissions for the same trips.
Fulton said that those companies will be a benefit to economically disadvantaged regions because many of those small businesses are owner-operators and are actually located in those areas.
Polis and his staff discussed a buyback program for dirtiest trucks, but they only mentioned about 500 vehicles that would be retired.
