Today, Evergreen Action and 18 major climate advocacy and environmental justice organizations sent a letter to leaders in the Biden administration, calling on them to strengthen and finalize EPA’s clean trucks rule that accelerates the U.S. toward 100 percent zero-emission trucks, while building out the charging infrastructure needed by creating a national strategy for freight electrification.

The letter outlines how our current trucking system threatens communities with deadly air pollution, relies on outdated fossil-fuel vehicles, and exacerbates the climate crisis. It calls on EPA, the Department of Transportation (DOT), the Department of Energy (DOE), and the White House to work together to ensure a whole of government approach to tackling the environmental injustices caused by toxic pollution from our trucking sector. This letter comes as there has been mounting internal pressure from trucking companies and sector trade groups to drop delay tactics that misalign with their public climate and decarbonization commitments. 

READ THE FULL LETTER HERE

“The transportation sector is the number one most climate polluting sector of our economy—we can’t afford to waste critical opportunities to clean up our roadways,” said Evergreen Action Vice President Craig Segall. “Cleaning up our trucking fleets is not just a no-brainer for remaining competitive and creating good-quality jobs, but it’s a necessity to ensure we do better to protect the communities on the frontlines of deadly pollution. The Biden administration committed to taking a whole of government approach to climate, and this is a  key moment to step up to the plate and deliver. Evergreen is proud to partner with a strong coalition of national climate organizations in calling on the administration to go beyond the bare minimum to deliver a pathway to clean roadways that protects people, creates good jobs, and secures a more livable future for us all.

In addition to the letter sent by Evergreen and its national climate partners, Senator Alex Padilla (D-CA) and 14 other Senators sent a letter to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm calling on the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation to prioritize the deployment of medium and heavy duty charging infrastructure.

Evergreen is joined on its letter by:

Calstart

Center for Biological Diversity 

Ceres

Change the Chamber

Chesapeake Climate Action Network

Clean Air Task Force

Earthjustice

Ecology Center

Elder Climate Action

Environmental Law and Policy Center

GreenLatinos 

Hip Hop Caucus

Interfaith Power and Light

League of Conservation Voters

NRDC 

Public Citizen

Sierra Club

Union of Concerned Scientists

You can read Evergreen and its partners’ full letter here.

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