To meet our air quality and climate goals, we need to tackle some of the biggest polluters on our roads: heavy duty trucks. Though trucks represent just 2 million of the 30 million registered vehicles in the state, they are the largest single source of air pollution from vehicles. The California Air Resources Board study reveals that heavy-duty trucks spew 70% of the state’s smog-forming gases and 80% of carcinogenic diesel pollutants.

The answer may seem simple – put electric trucks on the road. The reality is much more complicated. Load capacity, range, availability and other factors make the move to electrify our biggest vehicles a big challenge.

But that doesn’t mean the move toward zero-emissions is any less righteous.

After years of successful demonstrations, we’re moving forward to make electric trucks a reality in some big ways. The Coalition for Clean Air is proud to be a part of the joint Electric Truck Scaling Initiative (JETSI), a landmark effort led by the South Coast Air Quality Management District, California Air Resources Board and California Energy Commission to deploy 100 battery-electric regional haul and drayage trucks as well as 70 truck chargers across Southern California. The battery-electric trucks will be deployed through a partnership with NFI Industries and Schneider. JETSI represents an unprecedented industry-wide collaboration that includes more than 20 public and private partners and stakeholders.

Our role in this project is to gather feedback, facilitate meetings between key stakeholders and to educate the community on the positives and potential challenges that come with this ambitious work. Participating in JETSI is just the latest in our work trying to bring zero-emission technologies to California through efforts like recognizing businesses who move toward zero-emission technologies, facilitating conversations at the Port of Hueneme to create a zero emission blueprint and of course fight for policies to move us toward a zero-emission future.

As part of our Jetsi work, we are looking for feedback from Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino and Orange County-based business, nonprofit, public health, government, and academic organization on electric trucks and truck emissions generally. If you represent an entity in the area, please take 5-minutes to fill out this survey: tinyurl.com/JETSIsurvey

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Originally Appeared Here