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A group of advocates gathered in Chicago and called on Pritzker
to adopt the Advanced Clean Trucks (ACT) and Omnibus Low
Nitrogen Oxides (LowNOx) rules. They said the safeguards will
protect workers and communities from air pollution and improve
public health after Illinoisans suffered a series of
historically unhealthy air days in June.
“Polluted air is not a one-time disaster, and often it is not
blowing in from across our borders, we breathe dirty air
everyday, poisoned by diesel trucks that drive through our
communities,” said J.C. Kibbey, advocate for the Climate and
Clean Energy Program.
Don Schaefer, executive vice president of the Mid-West Truckers
Association, said modern trucks run much cleaner than in the
past.
“Are we reducing emissions, we’ve reduced emissions by 90% on
most diesel trucks over the last 20 years, so there is progress
being made,” Schaefer told The Center Square.
The state of California recently made an unprecedented move in
their effort to electrify big rigs. New rules would ban sales of
new diesel trucks by 2036 and convert large companies’ existing
trucks to zero emissions by 2042. A ban on new diesel trucks
from railyards and ports is set to begin next year.
Trucking companies said the deadlines will cause “chaos and
dysfunction” for California’s economy.
Andrew Boyle from the American Trucking Association told a
Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee in April that
more thought needs to go into the process of mandating electric
semi-trucks.
“In Illinois, a facility teed up 30 trucks for electrification,
and the city of Joliet came back and said this is some kind of
joke. You’re asking for more draw than the city requires,” said
Boyle.
According to the ATA, a clean diesel truck can spend 15 minutes
fueling anywhere in the country and then travel about 1,200
miles before fueling again. In contrast, today’s long-haul
battery electric trucks have a range of about 150-330 miles and
can take up to 10 hours to charge.
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