Polis administration’s clean truck strategy would reduce pollution and save money – Colorado Department of Transportation

Denver – Building on its national climate and infrastructure goals, the Polis administration today released a state strategy to encourage the adoption of zero-emission medium and heavy-duty trucks that could reduce greenhouse gas emissions from these vehicles by at least 45% in Colorado by 2050.

That’s the projection of the draft Clean Truck Strategy released today by the Colorado Bureau of Energy, the Colorado Department of Transportation, and the Air Pollution Control Division of the Department of Public Health and Colorado environment.

The clean truck strategy is part of a suite of initiatives undertaken by Governor Jared Polis to improve air quality, reduce emissions and save money for individuals and small businesses.

“We have a historic opportunity to support a transition to clean, zero-emission trucks and buses that will reduce harmful air pollution, advance our climate goals and save fleets millions of dollars a year in fuel costs. “, said Will Toor, director director of the Colorado Energy Office. “We believe this is an actionable and comprehensive strategic plan for Colorado that can help us jump-start the zero-emission truck and bus market by tapping into new opportunities and funding sources, and ensuring that that our efforts are focused where they can make the biggest difference.”

Medium and heavy vehicles include tractor-trailers, school buses, snow plows, delivery vans, large pickup trucks, and many different types of vehicles in between. They are the vehicles that bring Colorado’s children to school, deliver food to our local grocery stores, plow our streets, repair our critical infrastructure, power our businesses, and perform hundreds of other tasks essential to our lives and our economy. Unfortunately, medium and heavy vehicles are also the second largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the transportation sector, contributing 22% of on-road greenhouse gas emissions, despite accounting for less than 10 % of all vehicles in Colorado.

Using input from multiple town hall meetings, stakeholder groups, and the Colorado Medium and Heavy Vehicle Study, the agencies developed a draft strategy to accelerate the adoption of clean trucks in the state which recognizes the growing importance of freight to the economy.

This will help fight climate change, improve air quality and most importantly help communities disproportionately affected by polluting emissions from transport. The study also found that owners of medium and heavy trucks, most of which are small businesses, could save an estimated $5.8 billion by 2050 through reduced vehicle maintenance costs and cost savings. fuel by switching to zero-emission vehicles.

The Medium-Heavy-Duty Vehicle Study found that if Colorado pursued an accelerated transition to zero-emission medium- and heavy-duty vehicles, it could reduce greenhouse gas emissions from medium- and heavy-duty trucks by 45% to 59%. %, reduce nitrogen oxide emissions by 54% to 93% and reduce particulate emissions by 53% to 68% below 2005 levels by 2050.

Key elements of the draft Clean Truck Strategy include:

• A vision statement focused on achieving a “large-scale, efficient, affordable, and equitable transition of Colorado’s medium and heavy-duty vehicle industry to zero-emissions technologies,” with particular emphasis on ensuring that the transition delivers the priority to improving air quality for those who have always been the most affected by pollution from medium and heavy vehicles.
• Clear goals and objectives for the state to measure progress toward, including specific goals for statewide adoption of zero-emission vehicles, adoption of zero-emission vehicles within the fleet of the State and electrification of state transit and school bus fleets.
• A priority set of 34 actions that state agencies will implement to support this transition, including short-term actions in 2022 and 2023, as well as medium-term priorities that agencies will initiate as they are able or once the necessary planning is complete. The 34 actions identified cover seven different categories of initiatives, including procurement policies and programs, vehicle incentives and financing, infrastructure planning and investments, utility strategies, workforce development -work and regulatory measures.
• A key focus of the strategy is to implement and leverage several new opportunities and sources of funding to help grow the market for zero-emission trucks and buses in Colorado, which collectively total nearly one billion dollars in investments, not to mention several new federal discretionary grant programs. These new opportunities include proposed air quality investments in the Governor’s 2023 budget for a new electric school bus incentive program and clean truck replacement program, development of 10-year plans and program offerings. initial funding for Clean Fleet Enterprise, Clean Transit Enterprise, and Community Access Enterprise, which will invest in incentives for vehicles and charging infrastructure, and new historic federal funding opportunities for charging infrastructure, refueling infrastructure hydrogen and investments in electric school buses and transit buses.
• Following the near-term development of these foundational programs, the administration will, by year’s end, submit a request for a hearing to the State Air Quality Board to consider the adoption of rules to reduce pollution from diesel vehicles and further support the transition to zero-emission trucks and buses.

Next steps:

The public consultation draft of the Clean Truck Strategy is available for review and download here.

The Polis Administration, Colorado Bureau of Energy, Colorado Department of Transportation, and Air Pollution Control Division will share the draft clean truck strategy with Coloradodans and invite their feedback. Public webinars will be held March 30 from 6-8 p.m. and March 31 from 2-3:30 p.m. Written feedback can be sent to [email protected] and the public comment period will be open until April 4.

More details can be found at: https://sites.google.com/state.co.us/cotriporgfreight/clean-truck-strategy

About the Colorado Bureau of Energy

To achieve the vision of a prosperous, clean energy future for our state, the Colorado Bureau of Energy is working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and consumer energy costs by advancing clean energy , fuel efficiency, and zero-emission vehicles to benefit all Coloradodans. Visit energyoffice.colorado.gov to learn more.

About the Colorado Department of Transportation

The Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) strives to provide the best multimodal transportation system for Colorado that moves people, goods, and information in the most efficient and safest way. The CDOT manages over 23,000 miles of highway lanes, over 3,000 bridges and 35 mountain passes. CDOT also manages grant partnerships with a range of agencies and operates Bustang, the state-owned inter-regional express bus service. Governor Jared Polis has instructed CDOT to rely more on the state’s intermodal mobility options. Find more details at codot.gov.

About the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment – Division of Air Pollution Control

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) seeks to advance Colorado’s health and protect the places where we live, learn, work and play. More information about the Air Pollution Control Division within CDPHE is available at cdphe.colorado.gov/environment/air-pollution-control.