The latest news from California's Air Resources Board is a proposal to require all new diesel and gasoline-powered medium-duty and heavy-duty trucks that operate in California to be zero-emission vehicles by 2040, according to an article written by Nadia Lopes and published by CalMatters, which was in my newspaper today. Some interesting statements in the article, included one by Chris Shimoda, Senior VP of the CA Trucking Association, who said:"We're flying blind into some pretty major questions about the practicality of actually implementing this rule." The Air Board did not include cost estimates for trucking companies, only saying that they would save money in the long run. About 1.6 million heavy-duty trucks would be affected by the regulation, according to their report.
The provisions requiring turnover of existing fleets would apply only to federal agencies and so-called "high-priority fleets", which are owned or operated by companies with 50 or more trucks or $50 million or more in annual revenue. Included are trucks weighing 10,001 pounds or more and package delivery vehicles of 8,500 or more, including USPS, FedEx, UPS and Amazon fleets. Half of all new trucks purchased by state and local governments would be zero-emission in 2024, increasing to 100% by 2027. The new rule would not apply to emergency vehicles, such as ambulances (and police vehicles?).
The article ends with this comment by Shimoda: "These charging stations are going to be a huge, huge, power draw." "To put it in context, the Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara on a (49'er football) game day uses around 300 to 350 kilowatts of power. A charging station needed for a big rig is going to be like 30 times larger."
