Wes Lowe uses a lot of Claretin to the point that it started to subscribe to Amazon to avoid running away. His children take asthma medications. This reflects the normal life of pollution in the Saint -Jawakin Valley in California, where the population breathes Some of the most air in the nation.
Louis lives about 20 miles outside Fresno, in the heart of the valley. More than ten highways, including highway 5, pass through the area, with nearly half of the state trucks movement. The sky is usually blurry, the air is often dangerous, and 1 in 6 children live with asthma. Louis said: “You do not realize how bad it is until you leave.”
He understands the urgent California need to disinfect the air by Electrification of truck transport industry The elderly pushed the most polluted machines off the road. This would reduce nitrogen oxide emissions by 17.1 tons annually by 2037and It greatly reduces the amount of ozone that constitutes smoky fog, It has a long way to meet federal air quality requirements. But as a partner at the Kingsburg Truck Center, an agent in Kingsburg, he saw how difficult this transition.
More than 15 percent of medium and heavy birth The trucks that were sold at the state level in 2023 were zero. But the road was rugged amid the increasing uncertainty about the California and Trump administration regulations Employment towards electric carsthe Clean energy transmissionAnd climate policies in the state.
Golden State started truck transport in 2021 when it asked manufacturers to produce a growing number of large emitters, known as advanced clean trucks, or ACT. The following year, private and public fleets imposed only to buy these machines by 2036, determining the so -called advanced clean fleets, or ACF.
The Environmental Protection Agency granted the waiver of California to adopt a law in 2023. But it was not spent on the exemption required to impose ACF by the time when President Donald Trump took office, prompting the state to cancel its request as a “strategic step” to maintain “options on the table”, according to the California Air Resources Council.
The US Senate threw the fate of the advanced clean truck base in question when it is The waiver of the state protection agency was canceled in the state On May 22, it is stripped of its ability to assign the electrification of private fleets, although it can still organize the public. Now the bright side of the state’s efforts to clean truck transport is a clean truck partnership, which has been approved by many manufacturers already on the production of zero emissions platforms regardless of any federal challenges.
All this reduces the ability of California to reduce pollution. The Air Resources Council said Eliminate 5.9 tons of nitrogen oxide Emissions in the Saint Johkin Valley by 2037. Another base, which is the regulation of a locomotive in use, prohibits more than 23 years of internal combustion trucks by 2030 and will reduce these emissions by another 11.2 tons. Even with these applicable rules, the country will have to reduce another 6.3 tons to rid the air quality with the bases of the Environmental Protection Agency.
Michael McCor / San Francisco Cronic via Getty Images
With the fate of California Carbon transport campaign with trucks In the question, even those who want to see him succeed. The Kingsburg Truck Center started selling electric battery trucks in 2022, but chainsus customers begin to cancel requests as soon as the state is unable to apply advanced clean fleet requirements. Louis had to lay off seven people as a result.
Louis said: “We got next to EV, and when the mandate disappears, I am like,” shit, will I get stuck with all these trucks? “If I would do everything again, I may risk a lot of the investment that we have entered into the zero emissions space.”
California is still committed to cleaning truck transport. However, the transition will require creating creative policies because the Trump administration’s runner of the idea makes it “very difficult for the state to reach its goal of 100 percent zero truck sales by 2036.
However, it sees ways that the state can make progress. Legislators are studying a draft law that gives the Board of Air Resources Authority Organizing ports, railway squares and warehouses. This would allow organizers to delegate the strategies to advance the transition, such as claiming facilities to install the shipping infrastructure. Many state programs confirm some cost of electrical trucks, which can It costs about $ 435,000 – About three times the price of the diesel platform.
This does not mean that California does not fight. Plan for Trump administration prosecute To maintain its right to set emissions. Loss of this will make “impossible” Reducing valley pollution Craig Seagal, former Deputy CEO of the Air Resources Council, said enough to meet air quality standards. He said: “The advanced clean fleets and the advanced clean trucks arise from some very difficult mathematics regarding what is true about air pollution in the central valley and California, which is that they have always been a problem with the car and the truck.”
Even if the state loses the ability to organize vehicle emissions and require electrification, Segall is confident that the market forces will push the move forward. As China He continues to invest in technology and develop large electric platforms, He said that companies around the world will need to do the same to remain competitive. He also said that truck transport companies will see emissions trucks zero as an opportunity to reduce maintenance and fuel costs. The Freito Lay Factory in the Central City of Modesto bought 15 of Tesla Electric Big platforms.
Marissa Campbell, co -founder of Mitra EV, Los Angeles company that helps companies in the field of electricity, said the economic argument for diesel abandonment is very attractive. She said that the state’s decision to direct the base of the advanced clean fleets did not harm the work.
She said, “No one loves to tell him what to do.” “But when a plumbing or solar folder shows how they can save 30 to 50 percent on fuel and maintenance – and sometimes more – all ears.”
Valerie Thorsen has led the Saint -Jokin Valley office in Calstart, a non -profit organization since 1992 that has pushed cleaner transport to treat pollution and climate change. You see that the Trump administration reckoning does not exceed an obstacle to the road to an inevitable transition. But any effort to abandon diesel should be accompanied by an aggressive payment to build the shipping infrastructure. She said, “You don’t want to have vehicles that you cannot charge or fuel.”
Saint Joakin Valley to combat air pollution He won a federal grant of $ 56 million In January 2024, to build two Solar Ener -lengths of EV shipping along the 5th highway with 102 chargers specifically for large excavators. About 45 percent of the California truck traffic passes across the region, which has reduced over the 25 years of nitrogen oxide emission from fixed sources with more than 90 percent. The remaining majority [nitrogen oxide] Todd Dyong, the director of grants and incentives in the region, said that emissions and smoke fog that make up emissions in the valley come from heavy trucks.
The Trump administration soon stopped grant programs such as Electric cars infrastructure program 5 billion dollars It would expand the infrastructure. But Deyoung is still confident that building truck chargers will continue because the work has almost started. Similar projects are underway In Beckerfield and Ketman.
Not everyone is convinced that the infrastructure needs to be released quickly like trucks. Ortz said that the emphasis on truck adoption would press the market to ensure the occurrence of online charging. He said: “This sends a signal to shipping infrastructure service providers to the facilities, saying:” These vehicles are coming, and we need to make sure that the infrastructure is present to support them. “
This support is very important. New Bill Hall on truck transport. He spent decades as a maritime engineer, but during the epidemic he decided to try something new. He runs an individual operation in Berkeley, California, and while he was carrying loads around the state, he noticed many hydrogen stations. Interestingly, contact with Nicola truck manufacturer to ask about electric hydrogen fuel cell platforms.
His engineering background impressed the emerging, which I thought would provide good technical reactions. Hall bought the first truck that the company sold in California, which increased his personal investments of $ 124,000 with $ 360,000 he received from a government program in December 2023. Despite some initial errors, he enjoyed his leadership. As an early leader, Nicola gave him a deal on hydrogen – $ 5.50 per kilogram, allowing him to fill about 385 dollars and about 400 miles. “It has proven that you can actually take this hydrogen truck to any corner of the California angle with the minimum hydrogen distribution system they have,” said Hall.
But weak sales, weaknesses, and other problems prompted Nicolas to make bankruptcy in February. Without her technical support, Hall no longer feels comfortable driving his truck. The company’s collapse also means paying the full price of hydrogen, about $ 33 per kilogram these days. Hall is still paying $ 1,000 per month for insurance and $ 225 per month for parking lots. He says that the state is involved in some blame for his dismissal because he did not do enough to support technology. He wanted to see him distribute 1000 hydrogen trucks to create and support fuel costs. He said: “I did the right thing, which ended up with the wrong thing.”
In addition to the clear effects of the climate to abandon diesel, many health benefits lie. In addition to generating a lot of carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxide, the transportation sector is responsible for 80 percent of ozone emissions in California. “There is no doubt that moving away from combustion trucks to zero emissions would save lives, prevent asthma attacks, and generate important and important general health benefits throughout the state,” said Will Barrett, chief manager of clean air invitation in the country with the American Lung Association.
The state has come a long way in contracts since the smoky fog has feed Los Angeles, and the Saint Johkin Valley has enjoyed a gradual cleaner over the past 25 years. But people like Louis Mendes Gomez know that there is more work to do, even if the air is no longer emitting the smell of burning tires. He has lived alongside a crowded highway and not far from a colander outside Beckerfield for 40 years. It took a loss: His wife was transferred to the hospital due to lung disease earlier this year, and he knew 10 people who died due to lung cancer.
“This pollution has continued for years,” said Mendes Gomez. “Nobody has not cared before, so far. We are paying the government and pushing companies to help us.”
But when it seems that things may change, it seems that the federal government is ready to retract this progress. “All the land they gained will disappear.”
