The MSRC is partnering with the South Coast Air Quality Management District (South Coast AQMD) to enhance the incentives available under the On-Road Heavy-Duty Voucher Incentive Program (VIP). The VIP provides funding to owners/operators with fleets of 10 or fewer vehicles to replace older vehicles with engine models that are 2013 emissions-compliant or newer to help clean up emissions from older, more polluting vehicles. Thanks to $5 million in MSRC Clean Transportation Funding, the program is able to offer a “plus up” or additional funding to purchase vehicles with new, lower-emission engines which meet or exceed the optional low NOx standard of 0.02 g/bhp-hr. This standard is at least 90 percent cleaner than the current standard.
The California Air Resources Board (CARB) unanimously voted to adopt the nation’s first electric vehicle mandate for trucks. The Advanced Clean Trucks (ACT) rule will require manufacturers of medium-duty and heavy-duty trucks to begin selling an increasing percentage of zero-emission trucks starting in 2024. The rule is expected to result in 100,000 electric trucks being sold in California by 2030 and 300,000 by 2035. By 2045, every new truck sold in California will be zero-emission. California’s 2 million trucks on the road currently are responsible for 70 percent of the air pollution that causes smog and 80 percent of the diesel soot emissions that are carcinogenic.
This year we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the federal Clean Air Act. Passed in 1970, the law was enacted to curb the impacts of acid rain, tackle the intense smog pollution that was blanketing many American cities, and address other air quality issues. Although the CAA, coupled with states implementing their own air quality regulations, has done much to improve air quality over the last half-century, there is much work left to be done so that everyone can breathe healthy air. The American Lung Association’s “2020 State of the Air” Report shows Southern California still has some of the dirtiest air in the country.
