California’s Zero Emissions Vehicle Dreams
California’s Air Resources Board says zero-emissions technology is already available for delivery vehicles such as package vans and medium-duty trucks. Photo: First Priority GreenFleet/EVI
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California’s Air Resources Board says zero-emissions technology is already available for delivery vehicles such as package vans and medium-duty trucks. Photo: First Priority GreenFleet/EVI
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With the 2010 Environmental Protection Agency emissions regulations behind, and the trucking industry currently gearing up to integrate the first phase of new greenhouse gas emissions regulations going into effect in January, fleet managers may have thought they’d heard the last from the California Air Resources Board for a while.
But CARB is back with a new slate of initiatives designed to explore zero-emission vehicle technology. At the moment, these proposals are focused on evaluating the current state of ZEV technology, exploring the potential for increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of these technologies in the future, as well as looking at other, non-vehicle means of further improving air quality in California. While there are currently no laws or regulations associated with this new CARB effort, industry experts fear that they may soon lead to all-new environmental mandates that specifically target diesel-powered trucks and will make it much more difficult — and expensive — to move freight in the Golden State.
Many fleets find virtually any proposal emanating from CARB difficult to swallow.
The agency itself enjoys a special status among the state’s agencies, according to Mike Tunnell, director, energy and environmental affairs for the American Trucking Associations, who notes that the agency is made up of political appointees who take their marching orders directly from the governor’s office.
“California is a lot different than most parts of the country,” Tunnell explains. “For starters, Gov. Jerry Brown is determined to reduce petroleum use in the state. And every state-wide office in California is held by a Democrat. So the agency definitely gets a serious push to regulate vehicle emissions from the executive office right on down the line to the legislature to …Read the rest of this story
