04/20/2025 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 04/20/2025 15:33
Our current economy relies heavily on car and truck transportation. From commuting to work or school to delivering goods for consumers, Americans have collectively averaged around three trillion miles traveled yearly. To put that in perspective, that is equivalent to about 5,000 trips to the moon and back. As it stands, much of the air pollution emitted by vehicles disproportionately impacts low-income communities and communities of color, and transitioning to electric vehicles could rectify injustices these communities have been burdened with for decades.
In terms of environmental impact, the transportation sector accounts for around 28% of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, offering a compelling reason to electrify transportation to meet decarbonization goals. Greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector could be reduced by targeting specific vehicle types-medium- and heavy-duty vehicles (MHDVs) in particular-because they emit the highest amount of pollution per mile out of all vehicles.
Driven in part by the popularity of e-commerce, the demand for MHDVs has increased to deliver online purchases. Although MHDVs play an important role for consumers, their emissions disproportionately affect communities of color. According to a 2022 report from the American Lung Association, people of color are 61% more likely to live in a community with unhealthy air, with health effects ranging from alarming childhood asthma rates to lung cancer or even premature death. Mitigating these risks to human health will require states to implement strict regulations on MHDVs to eliminate their pollution.
In 2020, California was the first state in the nation to adopt the Advanced Clean Trucks (ACT) standard, which sets minimum requirements for manufacturer sales of zero-emission trucks. Eleven states have since followed in this direction and adopted California's ACT standard through their environmental agencies or legislative action, with seven other states and Washington, D.C. either having active campaigns to adopt ACT or signing a 100% zero-emission truck letter of agreement to adopt this policy.
The ACT rule is a critical policy for states to electrify MHDEVs and address the negative effects of diesel pollution. These actions stand to prevent 66,800 premature deaths and create $735 billion in public health benefits for U.S. counties located along the most prominent trucking routes. Attaining these benefits, however, would require state investment to guarantee that MHDEVs are not cost prohibitive for businesses.
ACT's sales requirements can be met through consumer incentives to increase medium- and heavy-duty electric vehicle (MHDEVs) affordability, and through community-focused investment to promote equity in areas most impacted by vehicle emissions.
For instance, California's Hybrid and Zero-Emission Truck and Bus Voucher Incentive Project (HVIP) offered vouchers for up to $120,000 for fleets purchasing qualifying zero-emission trucks, and funding is still available for small fleets. The state also takes environmental justice into account with its Community Air Protection (CAP) Incentives, where funding for zero-emission trucks and buses is allocated to communities most heavily impacted by air pollution.
Transitioning to MHDEVs will require new partnerships and regulations to guarantee the adoption of zero-emission vehicles. Major public-private partnerships emerged at the federal level in 2020.
For instance, the National Association of Truck Stop Owners (NATSO) and ChargePoint collaborated to bring EV charging stations to truck stops and travel plazas, specifically to fill infrastructure gaps identified by the Federal Highway Administration (FHA). Moreover, in January of this year, the Biden-Harris Administration announced a multi-state partnership among Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and West Virginia on an FHA-funded corridor project to build six charging stations along I-81 and I-78 to serve local fleets.
With uncertainty at the federal level regarding support and funding to increase transportation electrification, state-level action to enact policies that support MHDEV adoption will be particularly important. One resource states can utilize to inform such policies is the 2020 zero-emission MHDV Action Plan.
Developed by a coalition of seventeen U.S. states, Washington, D.C., and the Canadian province of Quebec to accelerate the transition to zero-emission trucks and buses, it contains goals to electrify public fleets and increase MHDEV deployment to disadvantaged communities.
States can follow Illinois' law to require all government vehicles to be zero-emission by 2045 or adopt Washington's fleet reporting requirements to better design incentive programs for electrifying fleets.
To power new MHDEVs entering the road, EV chargers will need to be more accessible to meet the anticipated demand. Interconnection, which includes the process of connecting electric loads like EV chargers to the grid, often faces obstacles like application delays and unclear implementation rules that discourage EV infrastructure. Additionally, because MHDEVs require significantly more power than other EV charger types, time-consuming and expensive upgrades are more likely to be required to accommodate them on the grid.
What solutions can address these issues?
First, the pace of interconnection should be accelerated by outlining specific procedures for powering EV charger projects. States could accomplish this by building a standardized list of steps from initial communication up to the complete interconnection of a project.
In addition to reducing confusion, standardization improves transparency by outlining expectations for both customers and utilities. It also increases the likelihood that communities receive equal treatment in the interconnection process because these steps and timelines would be clearly defined across utility service territories.
Another way to speed up the interconnection process is to allow for ramped or phased connections. This approach allows applicants to use the existing capacity at a site while awaiting necessary grid upgrades, and then ramp up to the full capacity initially requested once upgrades are completed-an innovative solution included under the term "flexible interconnection."
Other state efforts should include conducting hosting capacity analyses, or utility calculations of the distribution grid's ability to integrate distributed energy resources (DERs)-like solar and EVs-without grid upgrades. Through hosting capacity maps, utilities can provide a snapshot of grid conditions that allows customers to gauge whether certain locations may be able to accommodate large EV chargers.
These tools can also identify areas where hosting capacity limits are reached or exceeded, thus indicating that additional investments in grid infrastructure would likely be necessary before a new project could be connected. Given that many communities of color have lower grid capacity, finding these inequities can help states strategically direct grid investments to communities that need them most. Such targeted upgrades would not only improve these communities' grid reliability but also increase the likelihood they can adopt DERs, including MHDEV chargers.
Ultimately, MHDEV adoption needs to embrace community engagement to ensure disadvantaged communities are not left behind and that projects meet community needs. Some of these solutions could include broad community input and targeted outreach to bolster equitable electrification processes.
For charging projects that will directly impact community members, utility planning processes should embed community participation to allow members to share their concerns for how existing pollution from MHDVs affects neighborhood residents. Similarly, targeted outreach to local environmental and community-based organizations can help to establish bottom-up, tailored solutions for those who will be closely affected by electrification efforts.
These next few years are pivotal to our country's shift to zero emissions. Meeting decarbonization goals hinges on rapidly developing and deploying renewable technologies. Electrifying MHDEVs and ensuring there is sufficient charging infrastructure to power them, will be an important piece in this energy transition. More states will also need to adopt ACT manufacturing standards and create consumer incentives to ensure steady progress toward proliferating MHDEVs. Furthermore, streamlining interconnection and boosting hosting capacity analysis can help address systemic gaps in acquiring and charging MHDEVs, as well as identify communities that need heavy investments to rectify historic injustices. Only through this ambitious, holistic approach will MHDEVs uplift disadvantaged communities and become commonplace on our roadways.