Linda Baker, Senior Environment and Technology Reporter
Another front opened in the battle to level the playing field for zero-emission vehicles this week when nine California legislators sent a letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom urging him to take a “technology-neutral” approach to decarbonization and not focus the state’s transportation sector investments solely on battery-electric vehicles, especially in medium- and heavy-duty trucking.
“We stand deeply concerned about the impacts of medium- and heavy-duty trucks, buses, vessels, locomotives and off-road equipment on our local air quality and greenhouse gas emissions … [as] these sectors are particularly difficult to convert to zero emission and are especially well-suited for hydrogen fuel cell technology,” nine members of the California Senate and Assembly wrote in the letter, which also was sent to California Air Resources Board (CARB) Chair Mary Nichols and California Energy Commission (CEC) Chair David Hochschild.