This is Unite and Heal America and KABC 790. This is Matt Matern, your host and we’ve got a great program coming up. You’re listening to the Chris Chavez, the deputy policy director, and Bill Magavern, also the policy director for the Coalition for Clean Air. And glad to have both of you on the show.

Thank you. Pleasure to be here.

Well, we’ve talked before and with the Coalition for Clean Air on on my program, and I wanted to talk to you some more about what’s going on. In Southern California, and, in particular, the south coast. Rules for refineries, oil refineries have changed recently. And Bill learn to tell us a little bit about how they changed.

I’m actually gonna refer that question to Chris, because he was our point person on it.

Yeah. Great.

Okay, Chris, thank you for taking interest in. So there was recently a change in the rules governing over oil refineries within southern California. So as a quick kind of overview, there is, of course, the federal EPA, you have the California Air Resources Board, which is the statewide air quality regulator for California. And then you have these local entities called air districts within southern California, that’s called the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

And they are responsible for putting in rules and enforcing those rules on facilities within their jurisdiction. So the refinery rule that just passed was in response to a law that was actually passed in 2017. That requires the refineries to install the best available pollution control retrofit devices that they can go, they’re available to them. And this was actually going to be one of the most significant emission reductions in the Southern California Air Base.

And we’re looking at about eight tons per day of smog forming oxide oxides of nitrogen, which again, is a smog forming pollutant. So what it’s looking at what the school is doing, is it’s going to set emission standards for about 300 different types of pieces of equipment. And refineries are going to have a couple of ways in determining how they comply with those standards, they can either do it more on a per equipment basis, or they can do a facility wide cap.

From there, it’s going to be based on their schedule when they do maintenance, what’s called a turnaround schedule. And it’s this rule is going to be phased in over about a 10 to 14 year period. So the first year, we’re actually going to start seeing emission, mostly the emission reductions by about 2026. And we’re looking at full implementation by 2031.

Well, definitely applaud a step in the right direction, though, I guess, after speaking to a lot of guests on the program over the last number of months, a number of people are saying, hey, we need to get to net zero by 2030. Not just kind of a minor reduction. How do you respond to that? Well,

I think the important thing to keep in mind is that the South Coast Air Base in the area that folks of LA Live in to really Los Angeles County, Riverside County, San Bernardino County, Orange County, our air does meet national air quality standards. So in other words, our air is dirtier than what federal law. And that’s obviously a big challenge, because that means that we’re at higher risk for things like respiratory diseases, cardio, vascular diseases, asthma, etc.

And there’s a real health costs associated with this pollution. So certainly, you know, I think anybody who works in the environmental field wants to see a zero emissions future. However, we need to make sure that we’re not delaying the progress we can make today in when implementing these rules, and making sure that we’re getting closer and closer to attaining these standards in the long run.

I think one important thing also to point out is that this is a an agency, promulgating rules from above without input from stakeholders. There were actually tons tons have meetings, both with the environmental committee but also industry in this rulemaking process. So a lot of a number of folks were engaged in this.

The refineries were engaged with this, I think it’s actually worth pointing out that some of the refineries were actually ended up being supportive of this rule, if you can believe it. And yeah, so I think from our perspective, that meant the world could have been a lot stronger. But again, at the end of the day, this is actually going to be a significant emission reduction.

I guess, my concern is, how much is still going to be admitted, we’re talking about eight tonnes a day are going to be reduced, how much how many tons per day are being produced, or emitted right now.

So for the refineries, specifically, we’re talking so there are currently about 12.4 tonnes per day. For all the refineries within the South Coast Air bases, there are about five or six of them. Most of them are clustered in the communities of Carson, Wilmington, and West Long Beach. And that will now bring them down by about eight tonnes per day.

But you do bring up a very good point, if you look at all the other sources, including the port, we look at things like other pollution sources, it is just a small percentage. And it just shows it just goes to show how much work we actually need to do to meet those air quality standards. And that if I could jump in there, I think one of the things that you’re getting at is, in order to solve our twin crises of air pollution and climate change, we really need to phase out of burning fossil fuels all together.

And we know that that will take time, fossil fuels are embedded are in our entire economy. And it’s not an easy thing to get out of them. California has taken a number of steps in that direction, we know we need to do more, the rest of the country needs to do a lot more. There’s intense political opposition to that. And in the meantime, we need to be taking these kinds of steps interim steps, like reducing the pollution from our refineries and from our trucks and ships and cars.

Oh, absolutely. And I do want to emphasize that I applaud that work. I just know that our refineries are pretty dirty having had some litigation with one of the majors and knowing they kind of, you know, the amount of pollutants that are coming out of them on a daily basis is, is surprising.

And so at the end of the day, even after this is implemented, from my math, if we reduce 12.4 tonnes a day by eight tonnes, we’re still going to be having them throw off 4.4 tonnes of pollutants every day into the air.
Right, you’re no you’re not wrong at all. And and I think that underscores Bill’s point as far as transitioning away from fossil fuels to cleaner energy. It as that process moves forward. And again, that is we’re just talking about one type of pollution source. In our community, there are plenty of others that are also problematic, and actually even more problematic than just the refineries.

What, what do you see is the as other emission sources that are as serious or more serious than than the refineries right now?

Well, you know, in California, the great majority of our air pollution comes from transportation. We’re moving people we’re moving goods, and burning fossil fuels to do that we’re burning primarily gasoline and diesel fuel, which are the products of those refineries, right. So the oil base of our transportation sector is emitting most of the pollution.

And, you know, Chris gave a really good rundown of who is in charge of regulating the different sources of pollution. And when it comes to transportation, it’s not the air districts is the state Air Resources Board, and the Federal Environmental Protection Agency. So we you know, we have efforts now underway to reduce the emissions coming from those cars and trucks and ships.

And the state is leading the way in a lot of these categories. But there’s a lot more that we can do. And in addition to transportation, there’s some other sources that are known as off road engines.

And California, again, is on the verge of taking a big step. They’re requiring all small off road engines to make a transition to zero emission equipment. So on diesel Number nine, the California Air Resources Board will be voting on a measure, as they were ordered to by the state legislature and the governor, which would require lawn and garden equipment and small gasoline generators to all eventually transition to where the new products being sold are zero emission.

And there are there are good electric alternatives available in most of these categories. So that’s something that we’re looking forward to coming up just next month.

And when when do you think that the the sunset period will be for the long lawn and garden and gas generators?

The proposal that the board will be voting on would say that starting in 2020, for the lawn and garden equipment would have to be zero emission for the new sales, the existing equipment would not be touched. But for the new ones that would be on the market. And for generators they would have until 2028. And then at that point, the new small generators would have to be zero emission.

Well you’re listening to Unite and Heal America and KABC 790. This is Matt Matern, your host and we’re talking to Chris Chavez and Bill Magavern, from the Coalition for Clean Air and we’ll be right back in just one minute.

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You’re listening to Unite and Heal America at JVC 790. This is Matt Matern, your host, and we’ve got Chris Chavez and Bill Magavern from the Coalition for Clean Air. And gentlemen, just wanted to talk to you about some different pollution sources that we alluded to earlier. One of which is that ships are stacked up off our coast, trying to deliver goods to the Port of Long Beach and the LA port. And my understanding is those ships are belching out quite a bit of pollution into the air. What are we doing to deal with that problem? Chris?

Yeah, you’re absolutely right. This is a problem. In fact, actually, the California Air Resources Board has found that there’s been 20 tons per day increase in form smog, smog forming pollutants in the Southern California Air. You also have a point five ton per day increase of diesel particulate matter, and diesel particulate matters and known carcinogens comprised of over 40 Different carcinogenic compounds. So clearly, it’s not good stuff to breathe.

So there, you know, there are the impacts from the ships just idling off our coast is enormous. I think another thing that’s important to remember also, when it comes to the ships, is that when they’re out there, they’re not shutting off their engines, they are running on their auxiliary generators, to generate power to support the crews live on shitless ships to support the functions of the ship keeping them afloat. And those actually can be dirtier than their main engines.

So it is a big problem. It’s a concern. But as far as what’s being done, I think there is a lot there are a lot of potential, you know, things that can be done that shouldn’t be done. I think, for example, the the queuing system that was just announced is actually a positive step. But at the same time, that’s only going to to address it’s only going to be a small step in addressing the problem. Ultimately, what’s going to clear out the backlog is clearing out the container backlog at the ports.

And that’s going to create more room to actually put Get, get the ships into the berth, taking off their equipment or the containers and actually getting that distributed throughout the rest of the country. 40% of all US imports into the United States go through the port of LA and Los Angeles. So a lot of you know, goods going into the Midwest, good chance is that those goods are going right down the 710 freeway, actually pretty close to where I live. I live in the western side of Long Beach.

Well, I mean, when we think of it in terms of totality of pollution, the ships are thrown off too. 20 tonnes a day the refineries are throwing off 12.4 tonnes, the ships are out doing them by a factor of 50% or more 60%. So it’s a it’s a very serious source of pollution. It seems as though we should be requiring the ships to, to come into port with cleaner engines does is that a possibility.

But there has been an effort to push ships towards cleaner, fuels cleaner modes of transportation. I know actually the Biden administration at the cop 26 summit, led a delegation in creating some demonstrations, zero emission ship lanes, in actually trying to encourage more clean ships globally, which is a great step. But it’s good. It’s kind of a small baby step when you look at the total picture of the big picture of things.

So you, you are right there, it is a challenge. I know one of the the things that ships do have to do, either to couple things. One, when they’re coming across the ocean, they’re using a very low grade dirty fuel called bunker fuel. But when they get within California water, they have to switch to diesel fuel, which is slightly cleaner, but still problematic.

The other thing that ships have to do, if they support the the if they have the ability to support this is actually plugging into our electrical grid, the municipal electrical grid, so that they don’t have to run off of their generators when they’re docked, which is great. But again, when you when you the problem is, is that when they’re out there waiting at Angkor Wat, they’re out there waiting to actually get into the ports.

They’re getting running off of their auxiliary generator, and actually, from what we’ve heard, is that the emissions from those ships out there and anchor are actually Oh, you know, or more, you’re emitting more than what that rule has, you know, what that rule is responsible for reducing?

So then, what’s the what’s the action that the city, the state, the county, should be taking in order to address this, because it seems as though sometimes the state and the feds are not really enforcing the environmental laws that are on the books. I mean, I know that certain refineries were emitting more than they’re allowed to do.

And they essentially, the federal government was doing little to nothing to curtail that. And kind of as a follow up to that, I assume you guys have heard of, essentially, these these groups that are proposing that local communities should enact laws saying that they their citizens have a right to clean air, because essentially, the current laws that are written are federal laws or state laws that allow us the right to have moderately polluted air.

And that was essentially allow for certain levels of pollution that are deemed within reason. And so we as citizens do not have the right to have clean air or clean water. We have the right to have mild, you know, moderately polluted air and water.

Yeah, no, it’s uh, you know, in what, in terms of what EPA or the state can do it with chips is a millions. It’s typical, because a lot of those chips are based in other countries. And they are subject to those countries rules. And so it is a challenge. I think what you’re have been looking at is how do you clean up the operations that take place on the ports.

So right now locally, the South Coast Air Quality Management District is in the process of either negotiating with the courts for a voluntary emission reductions plan, and the MOU. Or they’re considering potentially doing a rule similar to what they did with warehouses in which the the port’s have to take actions to reduce pollution, from the things that emit pollution at the port. So we’re talking cargo handling equipment, trucks, things like that.

The environmental community has been very firm of wanting an actual rule rather than voluntary agreements. And right now, there was actually just a hearing this past Friday at South Coast a qmD. On this issue, and the ports are not you know, they are still in this position of kind of waiting to draw things out from our perspective and delay this as long as possible.

The Port of Long Beach is made slightly and I do emphasize slightly more progress and their negotiations to the Port of LA. So even seeing disagreement amongst the ports, and how to best approach the situation.

What’s your, what’s your opinion on on how to best deal with this situation to reduce the amount of pollution coming from the ports?

Well, it’s is going to be a challenge. And there’s really no easy silver bullet, it’s going to take a number of different approaches. One, you know, supporting those cleaner ships like what we’ve seen from the administration, from what you’re trying to get those deployed as soon as possible.

Supporting clean cargo handling equipment is going to be vital, because those are primarily diesel base, a turning over the trucks there, servicing reports, is also going to be important because those trucks have a very heavy with very strong, localized impact in the communities where they operate. And then also looking at the rail yards too, because rail yards are a significant source of pollution.

There’s some questions as far as how you know, when people think of the trains, that might be a more efficient option. But there’s also question how much of those transmit because in some cases, they could actually emit more, Bill might have some more thoughts on this as well.

Yeah, you know, we ultimately need an international movement to clean up shipping, because unfortunately, the rules for international shipping are set by a body called the International Maritime Organization. And we need for them to require all the ships to eventually clean up.

And that could mean using a green source like hydrogen to power the ships on those oceans voyages. Hydrogen also might be a solution for locomotives, which are another heavy duty transportation mode that is going to be very difficult to power by batteries might be possible. But it might be that hydrogen will be a better option for those kinds of transportation modes.

Well, I’m certainly a proponent of hydrogen and have a hydrogen car though I haven’t seen enough real movement in this direction. And it seems as though government has to set some standards in order to to get the market moving in that direction. And as long as the market can use dirty fuel, it will because it’s cheaper, and the market will always choose the cheaper option, absent a firm direction from the regulators. And I guess we’re just going to come to the end of this segment.

But we right back in just one minute. And, and Bill and Chris can talk to us about what actions can be taken so that we can have greener chips on the waters that would not pollute our, our fair city with 20 tons of pollutants every single day. That’s something to think about.

So you’re listening to Unite and Heal America, this is Matt Matern and KABC 790. We’ll be back in just one minute.

You’re listening to Unite and Heal America and KABC 790. This is Matt Matern. I’m talking to Chris Chavez and Bill Magavern, regarding clean air here in Southern California there with the Coalition for Clean Air. And I was just want to clarify something I had said right before the break. Regarding the ships, they’re producing about 20 tons of pollutants as they’re sitting out, waiting to get into their berths. Obviously, that’s in addition to pollution that comes from the time they’re sitting in the bursts.

They’re not pollution free, though they are plugging into the grid to reduce the amount of pollution. When are they supposed to fully implemented that procedure so that all ships are plugging in when they get into port? And are they currently in violation of the rules that are in play right now.

It’s a it’s a staged implementation. So I don’t remember what is the final timeline on that but they’re progressively having to have more of the trips be served by by ships that are plugging in at the docks, and more of California’s ports, and different kinds of vessels are being covered. So for example, oil tankers have not in the past been covered by this rule, but they will in the future.

And it was something that the oil industry fought against very hard. So that we’ll get better. Compliance has been fairly good, although unfortunately, Governor Newsom has waived the rules, when we’ve had tight electricity, and has said, well, they won’t have to plug in, and they can keep burning that, that dirty diesel fuel.

So, you know, when we have extreme heat, which of course is caused by climate change, then electricity gets tight, and sometimes the air quality standards get sacrificed.

That is, that is very unfortunate that we’re getting slammed in both directions, when that occurs. In terms of the transportation sector, which we talked about a little bit before, maybe we can turn some more attention to because, as Bill you said, 80% of our our particulates that we’re breathing in, that are harmful to us are probably coming from that sector. What what’s the current status is to our efforts to reduce pollution in that sector? And are we on track to get to net zero anytime soon?

Well, I think Americans have recently become very aware that when we talk about transportation, it’s not just about moving people, it’s about moving goods. And so we’ve got these supply chain bottlenecks. We’ve got all these goods that come over on ships. And we’ve been talking about how our ports are so congested that they’re backed up off the coast.

Once they finally unload that cargo, it goes onto trains, or mostly onto trucks. And those trucks are almost all burning diesel fuel, which is, as Chris has mentioned, is toxic diesel exhaust is toxic to human health. So there’s a lot we need to do to clean those up. And something that’s exciting is on December 9, I mentioned the Air Resources Board will be meeting and there’ll be voting on the small off road engines.

There’s another even bigger measure, there’ll be voting on to reduce pollution from old trucks. And that is to finally have the kind of smog check program for big trucks that we’ve had for decades for our cars. And I think a lot of our listeners will be shocked to find out that even though when a car once it reaches a certain age, has to go in for smog check. trucks don’t have to do that. Well, we’re going to make them Coalition for Clean Air sponsored a law that was authored by Senator Connie Leyva, and it told the Air Resources Board to develop his trucks smog check program, and there’ll be voting on it.

At this board meeting on December 9. Now, we’ve been talking about tons per day of pollution, this one by 2031 would reduce 72 tons of oxides of nitrogen every day, statewide in California. So this would be the biggest measure that California has adopted to reduce air pollution in over a dozen years. And it’s vital that the board does this. And we want to make sure that all the trucks are having to report their emissions, so that if there’s a part that is faulty, it will have to be repaired.

This is basically an inspection and maintenance program, just like we have with cars for smog check, only it will be done with much more modern technology. And the truckers won’t even have to go to a smog check station. Because for most of them, they have computers on board that can just transmit that information to the Air Resources Board.

Well, that is that’s great and a good step in the right direction, I guess. Kudos to you guys for for pushing that forward.

And we need to then go further of course and get out of diesel altogether when it comes to fueling our trucks. And so last year, the Air Resources Board did adopt a rule. The first in the country and other states are already starting to follow it to require the truck manufacturers to sell some zero emission trucks. And those can be powered by battery electricity.

They can be powered by hydrogen fuel cell electricity and emit no pollution from the tailpipe next year. We are advocating that the board adopt rules so that the fleets that buy the trucks would also be held responsible, so that over time, they would have to have an escalating percentage of their purchases, be zero emission trucks.

And, you know, we’ve talked about how we need to get off of fossil fuels. And trucks are where a huge percentage of the pollution in California is coming from. So we urgently need to clean those up.

What’s what’s your estimate as to the amount of pollution that’s coming from our truck fleet?

In California, it’s about half of the pollution that’s coming from on road sources, is coming from heavy duty trucks a little over half, even though they’re only 3% of the vehicles on the road. So that gives you some sense of the importance of cleaning up heavy duty trucks.

That is staggering, that 3% of the vehicles are causing over half the pollution. So in terms of, you know, support that those of us in the community can give to, to this measure that’s going to be voted on and 12, nine and December 9, what, what can we do to make sure that this gets adopted and becomes the new rule?

Well, you know, the board is conducting all its proceedings by by zoom, and people can make public comments, and you don’t go on camera, it’s just audio, you get up to three minutes to give your comment, people can get more information by going to arb.ca.gov.

And look up the December 9 meeting. And they haven’t posted the agenda yet. But they they will. And people will be allowed to sign up to make comments and just to call in briefly to ask the board to pass this rule. And the one area where we’re asking it to be strengthened, is right now they would have the truckers reporting twice a year.

And we think it should be four times a year. Because if a part fails, for example, a month after the last report, we don’t want to go five months before that problem is caught and fixed. If we have quarterly reporting, we’ll catch more of those.

And in fact, the Board staff themselves estimate that over 460 additional lives would be saved if we did the quarterly reporting. And that’s by the way, the estimate is that from 2024 to 2050, this rule would save over 7000 lives, as well as 1000s of hospitalizations, that would be avoided. So it’s really key from a public health perspective.

Sure, can you repeat that web address for the audience?

That’s arb.ca.gov.

Okay, so, yeah, we’ll definitely want to post that so that our listeners can go in and check that out, add their comments, too, to let the board know that we want to have very stringent regulations to protect all of us from pollution that is very damaging to us, as you said, These trucks are emitting diesel, which is toxic and carcinogen has a load with carcinogens we, we should be protecting ourselves from this 460 additional I’d saved is is a lot of people so appreciate the work that you are both doing on this front because obviously is helping save people’s lives.

And that’s that’s great work. So you’re listening at KABC 790. This is Unite and Heal America, this is Matt Matern. We’re gonna be right back after the break and we’re gonna be talking to Bill and Chris more about things that can be done to clean up our air so that all of us can breathe a little more easily here in Southern California and help solve this problem of global warming for that we are all facing so we’ll be back in just one minute.

You’re listening to Unite and Heal America at KABC 790. This is Matt Matern, your host and listen, I’m talking to Chris Chavez and Bill Magavern regarding clean air issues here in Southern California. And in particular just kind of going back to the issue of the trucks and and how we are in a situation where the trucking industry and is causing 50% of our transportation pollution.

What can we do to clean up those trucks and get the older, polluting diesel trucks off our roads and get clean air zero emission trucks as the order the day since 3% of they’re only 3% of our vehicle population yet are causing over 50% of the pollution.

And most of that pollution comes from the older trucks. And something that that California needs to do is to require that when trucks reach the end of their useful lives, that they can no longer operate on our roads. And that would be a big pollution reducing health protecting measures. So that’s something that we’re asking the California Air Resources Board to do.

You know, the the trucking industry and the oil industry are both very powerful lobbies, in California, and that has really slowed our progress towards fighting pollution.

Well, last I checked that our citizens are the ones that are supposed to be running the government, though, certainly we see a lot of big businesses getting an outsized voice and outside, outsized voice in our affairs, and we certainly all have to be engaged to, to make sure that these changes happen.

And so to the extent that people can work with your organization, organ organizations like yours, to let their voices kind of be magnified in Sacramento and Washington so that the powers that be recognized to they’re going to face consequences if they don’t listen to us.

Yeah, I mean, I studied constitutional law at one point, and that’s the way the process is supposed to work.

That’s the way it’s supposed to work. Well, we all have to engage with it. And I think that, you know, many of us, myself included was, we’re probably not engaged enough over the last number of decades. Not that I didn’t care at all, but I probably should have been more concerned than I was based upon the threats that were in front of us.

And those of us who were reading about it could see the writing on the wall that we were facing an existential crisis. But unfortunately, weren’t, we weren’t acting as though we were. And so I think it’s time for us to start acting as if we were versus pretending that somehow it’s not going to occur.

I think to your point, you know, there’s, we talked about air pollution, we talked about climate, when you talk about public health, it can almost be intimidating for people to jump in. Because there’s a lot of scientific terms. There’s a lot of regulatory, there’s a lot of legal issues. And I think what’s ultimately important is making sure that when if this is something you’re passionate about or care about, it’s just letting your elected officials know that this is something that you want to see action on.

It’s not you don’t have to get into the finer points in the minutiae of it. What they want to know at the end of the day, and I used to be a legislative staffer is what is what’s the thought, what’s the pulse? What’s the feeling amongst my constituents. And I think that’s really what needs to get across from folks is that, as intimidating as it may seem, as big as it may seem, what’s really the most powerful example that you could pull from is your personal experience.

So again, I live in West Long Beach, which is a highly polluted community. We have the refineries, the trucks, etc. And the most effective advocate, some of the most effective advocates I’ve seen, have been able to connect these policy issues with their daily life, with the things that they experience, either in terms of quality of life or health, or even deaths in the family.

You know, it’s obviously very, very concerning very distressing. So being able to, to draw from that, or speak in support of the folks who do live in that, I think is, is what the elected officials need to hear.

And also in terms of how people can engage Coalition for Clean Air organizes California Clean Air Day. And we ask people to take steps to reduce air pollution on Clean Air Day, which is the first Wednesday in October, but also all year round. And people can get more information by going to our website at ccair.org.

That’s great. And we would, we would love our listeners to engage with your organization and other organizations that are concerned about cleaning up our environment. And that’s the first step towards Uh, this getting cleaned up, I believe, though you were talking earlier about the transportation sector and maybe some of the good things that are happening and as well as some of the challenges and where we stand now in in switching to more zero emission vehicles.

Yeah, I mean, really, we need our state and federal governments to tell the auto companies to clean up their act. And that means both in terms of selling more zero emission vehicles, and also reducing the pollution from the combustion cars that they’re still selling, while we’re on the way to making that transition fully to zero emission.

And that starts with the US EPA, setting the clean car standards. And California Air Resources Board also has the ability to set clean car standards that are stronger than the federal government’s. And we’ve done that in the past and have led the whole nation, other states then can follow our standards, and over a dozen are doing that.

So we really need both the US EPA, under the Biden administration, and the California Air Resources Board, under Governor Newsom to push hard for the auto companies to meet these zero emission requirements. And and to ramp that up quickly. You know, we can’t wait until 2035.

We need from in this decade, to get a majority of the new cars sold, being zero emission. In fact, I think by 2030, we ought to get to 70 or 75% that are zero emission.

Really quickly to Bill’s point, where are we at?

Go ahead.

I was gonna say to Bill’s point, California has actually been regulating emissions longer than the federal government. We started a couple years before the federal government started, I believe, actually under Governor Reagan, which may surprise people just as your President Nixon was the one that signed the EPA into law, salary to existence. So this really is a, you know, a bipartisan issue, because it’s affects everybody’s public health, regardless of what their political affiliations.

Right, and in terms of where we’re at with the California Air Resources Board, and what actions do you think we should be taking bill to, to increase those standards from where they’re at right now.

So the board has been working on what are called the Advanced clean cars to standards. And initially, they were expected to adopt those this year. But they’ve delayed it until next year. So we’re really pushing for them to strengthen those standards. And to ask more of the auto companies, the existing standards go through 2025. And so we need for a real ramp up in 2026.

And beyond. Governor Newsom has said by 2035, all new sales will be zero emission should be zero emission. That doesn’t happen until the airport actually sets the standards. And we want them to really get the work done in 26 to 2030, and not rely too much on backloading it in the later years. Because we know when it comes to solving our climate crisis, and our air pollution crisis, Time is not on our side, we need to move quickly.

So in terms of the new rules that you’re proposing that they adapt to what would be kind of the rough outline of the new standards that you would suggest they adapt, we would say in 2026 have over 40% of the new cars be zero emission by 2030. Get it to 70 75%.

And then in the meantime, for the remaining portion, there’s still combustion vehicles, let’s reduce the greenhouse gas emissions, as well as the particulate matter that is allowed to come out of the tailpipe of those cars.

What’s our current position? What, what percentage of our new cars are zero emissions in California right now?

About 10%.

Okay, so we’ve got a pretty long way to go.

We do and you know, in addition to the cars, we need to give people ways to charge and fuel them. So you mentioned you have a hydrogen car. We definitely need more fueling stations for hydrogen not only cars, but also buses and trucks, which you know, we can clean up with hydrogen fuel cells.

And when it comes to battery electric cars, we need to build out the Those charging stations so that it’s convenient for people to charge wherever they’re on the road.

Well, currently, is there any standard from the California Air Resources Board for trucks and getting a percentage of them to zero emissions? And, and what by what time period?

Yeah, the rule was adopted last year. And the first requirements kick in, in 2024. So the manufacturers are given several years lead time because they have to do their product planning, and this will be a big change for them. And there are different percentages for different categories of trucks.

But, for example, delivery trucks, where we already have electric trucks that are that are out on the roads, you know, we know that that works. It’s already happening. They can charge in one place where they go back to their their homes. And you know, that will wrap up more quickly than it would say for the big rig, tractor trailer trailers.

Okay, well, you’ve been listening to Unite and Heal America and been less talking to Bill Magavern and Chris Chavez regarding cleaning up air air here in Southern California and, and they’ve, they’ve done a lot of great work with the Coalition for Clean Air here in Southern California, and certainly has a national impact as well.

And I greatly appreciate the work that your organization is doing and both of you are doing, and we look forward to hearing more from you in the future as we delve further into what we can do to improve our environment here in California.

So please visit their website and, you know, volunteer, join this movement to clean up our environment. Thanks, everybody, and join us next week on KVC 790. This is Matt Matern signing off.

As you may know, your host Matt Matern of Unite and Heal America is also the founder of Matern Law Group, their team of experienced employment consumer and environmental attorneys are dedicated to leveling the playing field by giving everyone access to the highest quality legal representation contact 844 MLG for you, that’s 844 MLG for you or 8446544968446544968.