OLYMPIA, Wash. — The Washington Trucking Associations (WTA) is responding to the state’s Department of Ecology’s latest announcement giving the agency discretionary authority to exempt state and local governments’ medium- and heavy-duty vehicles from snow removal and street sweeping from the Advanced Clean Trucks rules.
“Tuesday’s announcement by the state Department of Ecology underscores a double standard when it comes to enforcing the Advanced Clean Trucks rules,” said Sheri Call, WTA president and CEO. “While the private sector is being forced into compliance with unattainable emissions rules, Ecology has decided it can opt state and local government equipment out – including snow plows, sand trucks, and street sweepers — presumably for some of the very same reasons our industry has been asking for a delay or complete delinking from ACT. Namely, our state does not have the infrastructure in place to charge these vehicles, and new electric snow plows, sand trucks and street sweepers are expensive.”
“Massachusetts and Maryland just hit ‘pause’ on ACT, Oregon is about to do the same. We are rapidly becoming an outlier, jeopardizing our supply chain,” Call said. “Washington should also pause ACT implementation or delink entirely. We support a transition to clean trucking, but the infrastructure and vehicle technology are not there yet. It’s time to hit the brakes on ACT.”
Dana Guthrie is an award-winning journalist who has been featured in multiple newspapers, books and magazines across the globe. She is currently based in the Atlanta, Georgia, area.
