The Biden Administration Must Mobilize Agencies and Funds Effectively

Currently, the challenge is that federal agencies aren’t focusing their investments in the highest-priority ports, industrial zones, and freight corridors. 

But with focused attention on the biggest ports, we can sprint ahead. For instance, the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach combined make up the largest shipping hubs and source of air pollution in one of the most populated parts of the U.S. More than half of all U.S. imports originate or come in outside the L.A. region, meaning prioritizing electrifying this port, and other high-trafficked port and freight facilities like the Texas Triangle and the Great Lakes, can mean drastically improving the air quality and cutting carbon pollution in communities plagued by smog, asthma, and other health issues.

This isn’t just a theoretical—a new report from non-partisan expert International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) offers the proof. Their analysis shows that the U.S. can electrify far more of the trucking fleet than EPA has proposed with focused infrastructure investments in the biggest ports and trucking corridors.

The report also provides mapping resources that highlights priority corridors for electrifying long-haul truck activity: Infrastructure deployed on less than 10 percent of the highway network would get almost double the electrification that EPA’s proposal forecasts, proving industry bluster on infrastructure is just plain wrong. 

In addition to this being entirely possible, further analysis from ICCT shows that this approach can lead to incredible results. Researchers focused on two busy hubs—the Port of Seattle and the Port of New York and New Jersey (NY/NJ)—and quantitatively modeled that full electrification of these ports would mean drastically cutting PM pollution and provide tens of millions of dollars in public health benefits. 

Moreover, a vast majority of heavy-duty trucks spend their working lives within a 100-mile radius of their bases, meaning the number of chargers we need is not as many as we might think. In fact, most trucks won’t have to charge any more often than they would fill up with gas. 

Because the freight system operates across focused nodes and corridors, it is ripe for coordinated planning. That’s why electrifying states, like California, have already begun outlining statewide Zero-Emission Vehicle Infrastructure Plans (aptly named “ZIPs”) to help ports, utilities, governments, communities, and trucking firms move forward together. It’s time for the administration to take this idea national: A strong EPA rule can be supported by aligned funds, planning, and infrastructure deployment. And by rolling out the initiatives together, the administration can overcome industry bluster while accelerating forward.

A national zero-emission freight strategy, led by the White House, would address this gap in coordination and geographical prioritization because not all infrastructure needs to be built out at once. A broad vision from the administration could identify these key ports, high-priority corridors, and industrial zones that have the greatest return on investment. And then, using its convening authorities, the White House could direct federal agencies to align grant programs and strike key agreements among utilities, ports, states, truck-makers, government and labor groups, and communities to accelerate building essential charging infrastructure. 

In short, the White House has the power to provide all players with the necessary guidance to effectively navigate this transition and the unprecedented opportunity to lead in a nationwide adoption of zero-emission heavy-duty vehicles and infrastructure. Moreover, a strong rule paired with a White House-led vision also sends a signal to industry and the private sector to invest in charging infrastructure. And a national strategy can create more state-level ZIPs to decarbonize particular parts of the freight system, undergirded by federal grants, including EPA’s own Climate Pollution Reduction Grants Program, among many others.

Electrifying Trucks and Buses Must Go Hand-in-Hand With Good-Paying Union Jobs

Building an electrified charging infrastructure will require a skilled workforce of electricians—and behind the wheel of every electric truck or bus is a driver. Electrifying trucks and trucking infrastructure across the U.S. presents an opportunity to both clean up our nation’s air and create more clean energy jobs. 

That’s why it’s essential to focus on high labor standards for the workers building this charging network and these vehicles—including prevailing wages and an opportunity to join a union—and for those operating and fixing those vehicles. Creating a domestic electric vehicle supply chain with good-paying, family-sustaining careers will help foster and keep talent, create safer working conditions, and increase equity. And there’s already a well-recognized training program to support and train the thousands of electricians who can do well-paid work to build up our new national system. 

In its national strategy for freight electrification, the White House must help build a zero-pollution, reliable, and union-built supply chain and ensure key actors—from utilities to unions to frontline community leaders—have a seat at the table. It can support apprenticeship and training programs for workers, which have been shown to improve safety, diversity, and equity in the workplace. 

Clean Trucks and Buses Mean Cleaner Air and Healthier Communities

Getting a strong version of the heavy-duty vehicle standard across the finish line means much more than checking a regulatory box on EPA’s to-do list. It means putting into action what EPA Administrator Michael Regan said a year ago in “leaving no stone unturned” when it comes to tackling the climate crisis and protecting communities. 

It will mean cleaner air for people across the country—especially those in BIPOC and lower-income communities, who have endured decades of high pollution levels due to racist policies that forced them into heavily trafficked areas.

Places like Southern California, known as much for their idyllic beaches as they are for their smog, could finally see improvements in their communities’ health, lower rates of cancer and asthma, and a chance to spend more time outside without the need for albuterol inhalers or a N95 mask. 

The addition of more electric school buses, which a strong heavy-duty vehicle rule would also incentivize, would mean cleaner air for children and a healthier work environment for bus drivers and other student transportation employees. 

Bold climate action does more than cut greenhouse gas pollution; it advances a sustainable, clean energy economy and serves communities that have been left behind for too long. Now, the White House has an opportunity to build this positive and healthy future and call industry’s bluff. 

The pending truck carbon rules are once in a generation: We need to decarbonize that sector now to stay within climate targets and meet environmental justice imperatives for communities. Rather than delaying the rule until infrastructure magically appears, as industry delay tactics would have it, the administration needs to ramp up the stringency of its truck carbon pollution rules at the same time as it sets out a strategy to align funds and programs to support those rules. That full-court press will meet the moment by giving us strong rules, while showing that the full financial and convening might of the government is behind them—and put an end to industry’s fake waiting game.

Written by Medhini Kumar and edited by Craig Segall