Posts Tagged: diesel

Opinion

California needs a comprehensive plan for air quality

Morning pollution over Longt Beach. (Photo: Katharine Moore, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: We all have witnessed the devastation of climate change. As I write this, our California neighbors in Napa, Sonoma and up north are losing homes and businesses to wildfire. Every year, wildfire season is more severe than the year before. But the ravages of wildfire are not the only harmful result of climate change that is impacting us.

News

Note to industry: Electric trucks save lives

An electric big-rig tractor-trailer truck. (Photo: Union of Concerned Scientists)

OPINION: Polluters never miss an opportunity to exploit a crisis for financial gain — and the coronavirus crisis is no exception. As millions of Americans hunker down in their homes, sacrificing their incomes to save lives, truck manufacturers are endangering people in my community by lobbying for delays to the nation’s first electric truck standard, which would slash toxic air pollution from trucks.

News

California schools adopting propane-powered buses

A California school bus powered by propane. (Photo: SchoolBusFleet.com)

In the last decade, numerous California school districts have adopted propane-based school buses in an attempt to eliminate costs and toxic emissions. Since 2013, the Elk Grove Unified School District near Sacramento has added 16 propane buses to its fleet and expects up to 12 more in the next month.

Opinion

Tougher rules to curb vehicle pollution

Rush hour on the Harbor Freeway in Los Angeles. (Photo: Joseph Sohm via Shutterstock)

OPINION: Transportation accounts for the greatest share of greenhouse gas emissions in California, at 41 percent and trending up. So it should come as a relief that California’s Air Resources Board recently approved a suite of clean transportation rules that will not only help reduce carbon emissions from vehicles, but will help consumers who are feeling the pain of rising fuel costs in California.

News

California’s bumpy path to road repairs

A mid-1930s truck on a Kern County highway. (Photo: Joseph Sohm, Shutterstock)

California’s already poor roads deteriorated to a whole new level of disrepair this winter. Sinkholes have popped up throughout the state and major roads have closed because of damage. To cite just a few major examples: Portions of Interstate 80 and Highways 50 and 49 were closed due to mudslides. Parts of Highway 1 remain closed because of storm damage. Numerous local roads were battered severely.

News

January looms, fuel fight heats up

California motorists in a traffic jam. (Photo: Shutterstock)

Currently, fuel is about $4 per gallon and California burns about 14 billion gallons annually. Estimates of the magnitude of a potential hike vary widely, but most range from 15 to 20 cents per gallon, which would raise perhaps $2.1 billion to $2.8 billion annually. Efforts are under way in the Capitol, led by the petroleum industry, to exempt transportation fuels from the auctions until 2018.

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