According to recent reports, minority truck drivers in California are suffering from the state’s strict green energy regulations, which are notably impacting the trucking industry. California, known to be one of the most progressive states in the country, has led the charge by enacting some of the most stringent climate regulations.
The state’s environmental regulatory authority, the California Air Resources Board (CARB), is set to ban the sale of new diesel heavy-duty trucks starting in 2036. Reportedly, part of the policy’s motivation is to improve health outcomes in minority communities.
However, while the goals of improving health in these communities may be noble, similar regulations in recent years have made it more difficult for minority truckers to operate their businesses. Personal testimonies indicate that these small business owners struggle to keep their operations afloat.
“Many California neighborhoods, especially Black and Brown, low-income and vulnerable communities, live, work, play and attend schools adjacent to the ports, railyards, distribution centers and freight corridors and experience the heaviest truck traffic,” according to a 2020 statement from CARB. The announcement came amid a “clean truck rule” that sought to address the “disproportionate risks and health and pollution burdens affecting these communities.”
While politicians and government agencies are touting the supposed benefits of the regulations, those familiar with the impacted trucking industry offer a different perspective. Joe Rajkovacz, the director of governmental affairs and communications for the Western States Trucking Association, outlined how the rules demonstrated “indifference” toward minority small business owners. “A lot of our members are minority-owned small businesses,” said Rajkovacz. “Here in California, there is a decided indifference to small business trucking by both politicians and bureaucrats.”
Randy Thomas, a black California resident, operated a successful trucking company for years which eventually scaled up to employing 15 drivers. However, in the late 2000s, as green energy regulations began to ramp up, Thomas was forced to shut down his trucking business due to the financial impact on his operations.
According to Thomas, his business thrived for decades until former President Barack Obama was elected, at which point he began to notice a heightened regulatory environment that impacted his trucking business. “I did my first trip when I was 20. Everything was going great from 1971 up until around the time that Obama got into office,” Thomas explained. “By 2008, we come up with this clean truck program here. We were having all these meetings. I’m looking at the division between the environmentalists, telling us about CO2 and gases … I’m looking at the charts of what our engines that we had at that time, which were made mainly mechanical diesel, and they had no idea what engine was gonna be the engine they were writing into prospective goals.”
The American Tribune has reported on similar legislation from the Biden administration, which undeniably impacts the trucking industry. The latest move in the green energy agenda seeks to combat emissions from heavy-duty vehicles, such as trucks and buses.
“EPA’s standards complement President Biden’s unprecedented investment in our workers and communities to reduce harmful emissions, while strengthening our manufacturing capacity for the transportation technologies of the future,” said White House Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi. “By tackling pollution from heavy-duty vehicles, we can unlock extraordinary public health, climate, and economic gains.”
Featured image credit: Thank You (21 Millions+) views, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Colorful_Semi-Trucks.jpg
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