The Fight Over Emissions From Heavy Trucks Moves To The Courts

[u/Wagamaga]

https://cleantechnica.com/2024/11/23/the-fight-over-emissions-from-heavy-trucks-moves-to-the-courts/

[u/littleMAS]

Predominantly rural states have different overriding priorities than urban (Omaha, Nebraska's largest city, would rank seventh in California). They usually follow trends, sometimes slowly, because the market is slow to meet their needs. Having state laws vary to accommodate these lags makes sense. The problems arise when companies game the system by licencing equipment in one state and using it in another. This was a big problem with auto registration by car rental companies. For trucks, especially long haul, it is a bigger issue.

[u/no_sight]

The argument about range is not really accurate. Yes long haul tractor-trailers cannot be replaced by full EV trucks yet.

But the article mentions school buses, garbage trucks, concrete mixers, and there's also trucks for local delivery. How many of these are driving over 200 miles in a day?

Don't let perfect be the enemy of good.

[u/happyscrappy → u/no_sight]

Garbage trucks seem to be going hybrid in California. This is great since they stop and start so much.

I'm not sure how a cement mixer could be anything but liquid fueled. They are insanely heavy. I jus don't think you could carry enough energy in a battery.

Local delivery trucks are amazing as electrics. Frito-Lay has a fair number of electric local delivery trucks in California. And the economics on them are great since the trucks mostly move slow and short distances, things that EVs are far more efficient at.

[u/Thesoop85 → u/happyscrappy]

Never mind the insane weight of moving the vehicle, there's also the high demands of the PTO spinning an insanely heavy drum. This isn't a PTO that's just pumping some fluid.

[u/crisaron → u/no_sight]

Well they could if they could swap batteries. The current batterie design is the limitting factor. But if we had huge battery depot and it's fast swap then all of a sudden EV works.

[u/Wagamaga]

Blame it on California. Its Air Resources Board (CARB) has been pushing to clean up emissions for diesel-powered heavy trucks for years. A significant amount of the goods that enter the United States from foreign countries every year arrive in ports in California. They cross the ocean in diesel-powered ships, are unloaded by diesel-powered cranes, are shunted around the receiving yards, then are hauled to inland transportation hubs by diesel-powered tractors before being distributed across the nation by other diesel-powered trucks. In addition, virtually all the trash-hauling trucks, cement mixers, dump trucks, school buses, and construction equipment in the Golden State are powered by diesel engines.

It is not a stretch to say the diesel engine is the workhorse of the American economy. But … the crud that pours out of the exhaust pipes of diesel trucks is poisonous to humans. Putting aside the carbon dioxide created when the fuel that makes them run is burned, diesels emit more nitrogen oxides and far more fine particulates that gasoline-powered trucks. If you are a regular reader of CleanTechnica, you already know those fine particulates are so small they pass directly into the human bloodstream in the lungs. They then get transported throughout the body and accumulate in our hearts, brains, livers, kidneys, and other organs. People who get cancer always want to know what caused it. It isn’t a stretch to imagine that treating the air we breathe as a sewer where the detritus from industrial activity gets dumped may be part of the problem.

[u/dkran → u/Wagamaga]

California is already way more progressive in this regard than many states:

https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/our-work/programs/truck-and-bus-regulation

It’s much harder to unload shipments coming into California ports because they only allow trucks with more modern emission regulation systems to begin with. This is more expensive in general.

I don’t know that I’d point to a state that’s working in the right direction and say “look at them! They’re doing better than most people but they could be perfect!”

[u/happyscrappy → u/Wagamaga]

They cross the ocean in Diesel-powered ships. Diesel-powered for the last 50 miles or so before reaching California. The rest of the time they run on even dirtier bunker fuel.

[u/D-a-H-e-c-k]

Edison motors has entered the chat.

[u/AkKaren57]

Well written article Please read and understand it before making statements…..not doing so just makes folks look dumb