Background

The Biden administration announced recently “a first-ever national goal to transition to a zero-emissions freight sector for truck, rail, aviation and marine, along with a commitment to develop a national zero-emissions freight strategy.” According to a fact sheet from the White House, the administration also unveiled several steps it plans to take under this strategy, including the following.

- the first tranche of the Department of Transportation’s $400 million Reduction of Truck Emissions at Port Facilities Grant Program to improve air quality and reduce pollution in communities surrounding ports

- a $72 million investment from the Department of energy to establish a program to demonstrate how vehicle-grid integration enables depots and truck stops to provide affordable, reliable charging while increasing grid resiliency

- a nearly $1 billion funding opportunity from the Environmental Protection Agency for cities, states, and tribes to replace Class 6 and Class 7 heavy duty vehicles – which include school buses, trash trucks, and delivery trucks – with zero-emissions vehicles

Measures the administration has already taken toward this goal include the following.

- the January 2023 release of a National Blueprint for Transportation Decarbonization and ongoing work to draft a series of related strategies for each segment of the freight system

- the March 2024 release of the National Zero-Emission Freight Corridor Strategy, which envisions charging and hydrogen refueling infrastructure along high-volume freight highways and hubs by 2040, and the subsequent designation of national electric vehicle freight corridors

- an April 24 meeting at the White House of stakeholders from commercial truck fleets, ports, vehicle manufacturers, state and local governments, utilities, infrastructure providers, and climate and environmental justice organizations to discuss how to supercharge the buildout of the infrastructure necessary to make a zero-emissions freight ecosystem a reality

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