Clean Truck Strategy to Protect Clean Air Moves Forward

Denver — The Polis administration’s plan to encourage the adoption of zero-emission medium- and heavy-duty trucks, which could reduce greenhouse gas emissions from these vehicles by at least 45% in Colorado by 2050, has been finalized after extensive public input.

The Clean Truck Strategy is a joint effort of the Colorado Energy Office, the Colorado Department of Transportation, and the Air Pollution Control Division of the Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment.

The strategy is part of a package of initiatives undertaken by Gov. Jared Polis and the Polis administration to improve air quality, reduce emissions and save people and small businesses money.

“Colorado has enormous opportunities to reduce pollution and improve quality of life by transitioning from diesel to zero-emission trucks and buses,” said Will Toor, executive director of the Colorado Energy Office. “This strategic plan creates a framework for achieving big things through investment, collaboration and regulation.”

Medium- and heavy-duty vehicles include semi trucks, school buses, snow plows, delivery vans, large pick-up trucks and many different vehicle types in between. These are the vehicles that bring Colorado kids to school, deliver food to our local grocery stores, plow our streets, repair our critical infrastructure, power our businesses and do hundreds of other critical jobs for our lives and economy. Unfortunately, medium- and heavy-duty vehicles are also the second-largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the transportation sector, contributing 22% of on-road greenhouse gas emissions despite being less than 10% of all Colorado vehicles.

Using input from multiple public meetings, stakeholder groups and the Colorado Medium- and Heavy-Duty Vehicle Study, the agencies developed a draft strategy to accelerate clean truck adoption in the state that recognized the increasing importance of freight to the economy. From the summer of 2020 through April, the state received 120 comments. The finalized strategy addresses a number of these comments through edits or adoption of suggestions.

The strategy will help fight climate change, improve air quality and especially help communities disproportionately impacted by transportation pollution emissions. The Medium- and Heavy-Duty Vehicle Study found that owners of medium- and heavy-duty trucks, most of whom are small businesses, could save an estimated $5.8 billion by 2050 from reduced vehicle maintenance costs and fuel cost savings by switching to zero-emission vehicles.

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

Key elements of the Clean Truck Strategy include:

• A vision statement focused on delivering an “efficient, affordable, and equitable large-scale transition of Colorado’s medium- and heavy-duty vehicle sector to zero emission technologies,” with a particular focus on ensuring the transition prioritizes improving air quality for those who have historically been most burdened by medium- and heavy-duty vehicle pollution.
• Clear goals and objectives for the state to measure progress toward, including specific objectives for zero emission vehicle adoption statewide, zero emission vehicle adoption within the state fleet, and the electrification of the state’s transit and school bus fleets.
• A prioritized set of 35 actions that state agencies will implement to support this transition, including near-term actions in 2022 and 2023, as well as medium-term priorities agencies will initiate as capacity allows or once necessary planning is completed. The 35 actions identified span seven different categories of initiatives, including procurement policies and programs, vehicle incentives and financing, infrastructure planning and investments, utility strategies, workforce development and regulatory actions.

A key focus of the strategy is the implementation and leveraging of several new opportunities and funding sources to help build the market for zero emission trucks and buses in Colorado that collectively total nearly $1 billion in investments, not including 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, the development of the 10-Year Plans and initial program offerings for the Clean Fleet Enterprise, Clean Transit Enterprise, and Community Access Enterprise, which will invest in vehicle incentives and charging infrastructure, and historic new federal funding opportunities for charging infrastructure, hydrogen refueling infrastructure, and electric school bus and transit bus investments.

Following the near-term development of these foundational programs, the administration will, by the end of the year, submit a request to set a hearing to the state Air Quality Control Commission to consider adopting rules to reduce pollution from diesel vehicles and to further support the transition to zero emission trucks and buses.

Next Steps:
Agencies will continue collaborating with stakeholders and initiating implementation on the near-term actions in the Clean Truck Strategy. Some of the upcoming next steps and ways stakeholders can stay involved in the next few months include:

• Development of the Clean Transit Enterprise 10-Year plan
• Development of the Clean Fleet Enterprise 10-Year Plan
• Development of the Community Access Enterprise 10-Year Plan
• Stakeholder outreach for the Advanced Clean Trucks and Low NOx rules

State agencies anticipate updating the strategy every two years to respond to the evolving market and lessons learned from implementation of the near-term actions.

The Clean Truck Strategy document and a memo summarizing the public comments received and how they were addressed can be found at: https://sites.google.com/state.co.us/cotriporgfreight/clean-truck-strategy.

About the Colorado Energy Office

To deliver on the vision of a prosperous, clean energy future for our state, the Colorado Energy Office works to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and consumer energy costs by advancing clean energy, energy efficiency and zero emission vehicles to benefit all Coloradans. Go to energyoffice.colorado.gov to learn more.

About the Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment - Air Pollution Control Division

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.