The CNGVC voted at its spring board meeting to create an environmental justice advisory committee. The committee will help the Coalition align its work on legislation and regulatory actions with efforts to reduce pollution in disadvantaged communities, particularly communities of color, along California’s transportation corridors and near major nodes of transportation and ports.
Please contact Coalition President Thomas Lawson (Thomas@cngvc.org, 916-448-0015) if you are interested in joining the committee or want to recommend someone.
The Coalition has selected Sacramento law firm Churchwell White as its contract lobbyist. The firm focuses on public policy, working in the areas of government relations, regulation, municipal and special districts law, environmental and natural resources, and more. Attorneys and lobbyists at Churchwell White regularly represent businesses and trade associations before the California Legislature, the executive branch, and state agencies.
“Churchwell White is one of Sacramento’s most respected law firms representing the public policy interests of clients. The firm will provide value as another tool for Coalition President Thomas Lawson as he manages our issues,” said Ryan Kenney, senior public policy and regulatory advisor at Clean Energy, a Coalition executive board member.
In response to a lawsuit filed by the California Trucking Association and trucking firm John R. Lawson Rock and Oil, Judge Mark W. Snauffer of Fresno County Superior Court ruled that CARB failed to consider the environmental and business consequences of allowing operators of small truck fleets to delay compliance with a 2008 mandate to clean up diesel trucks and buses. Judge Snauffer nullified the amendments to the 2008 mandate, but the rule itself remains fully in effect.
The plaintiffs argued that the 2014 amendments, which allowed smaller fleets more time to comply, imposed an economic disadvantage on fleets that had spent millions of dollars on compliance. CARB defended the amendments, saying that they provide flexibility to fleets with three or fewer trucks, small farmers with lower-use vehicles, and fleets in rural areas. CARB plans to file an appeal, which would maintain the status quo until the higher court hears the case.
The EPA and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration have submitted proposed Phase 2 greenhouse gas emissions and fuel economy rules for trucks and trailers for regulatory review. Final rules could come as soon as August.
Released last June, the Phase 2 proposal covers 2021–27 trucks and tractors and 2018–27 trailers, which Phase 1 did not include. Phase 2 sets GHG limits for tractors with trailers as well as separate engine fuel-efficiency standards for light-, medium-, and heavy-duty vehicles. This proposal also addresses NGVs and engines, including emissions from the crankcase and LNG boil-off, two of the largest sources of on-vehicle methane emissions.
Gov. Jerry Brown’s inaugural Subnational Clean Energy Ministerial in San Francisco culminated with the signing of two Pacific Coast Collaborative agreements.
The Pacific Coast Climate Leadership Action Plan is an agreement between California, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia to establish a shared approach to monitoring and reporting emissions of short-lived climate pollutants. The Pacific North America Climate Leadership Agreement is a pact between the Pacific Coast states as well as the cities of Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Oakland, Los Angeles, and Vancouver, British Columbia, to reduce greenhouse gases 80 percent by 2050.
Parker Hannifin Corp., a motion and control technologies provider, has earned CSA certification to ANSI NGV 3.1-2014/CSA 12.3-2014 for its FM80 fuel regulation module. Parker says the FM80 is the only fuel regulation module to adhere to the certification’s standards for safety, performance, and durability, and the only fully integrated CNG flow control and regulation system for medium- and heavy-duty vehicles with 5-liter and 12-liter engines.
Momentum has introduced two roof-mount configurations designed for refuse trucks to its line of CNG fuel systems for Class 6 and Class 8 trucks. The systems, fabricated with high-strength steel and lightweight aluminum, is available in both four-tank 70 dge and five-tank 87 dge configurations. The lighter-weight tanks are made of 3M nanoparticle-enhanced matrix resin technology, a fiberglass composite material.