We’re taking a bite out of EV truck myths during Climate Week

It’s Climate Week in New York, and outside my window, traffic on Interstate 278 (known here as the BQE, or Brooklyn-Queens Expressway) about 17,000 trucks daily spew toxic fumes 24 hours a day, seven days a week, bringing goods into the city and the rest of state. 

But there is change on the smoggy horizon. This spring, Environmental Protection Agency finalized stronger pollution standards for heavy-duty trucks, and states across the country are adopting stronger than Federal clean truck standards to address their air quality problems.

Exposure to these pollution problems is most notable in Black and Brown and low-income communities. Having been marginalized by harmful housing policies for generations, communities of color can find themselves at the center of  “diesel death zones” near warehouses, ports, freight hubs and transit centers. This disproportionate exposure to air pollution is one of the clearest examples of environmental racism, increasing the risk of birth defects, lung disease, asthma, and cancer. Sadly, Latino/e children visit the ER due to asthma at twice the rate of non-Hispanic white children and are 40% more likely to die from asthma.    

Despite the universal good of standards that reduce harmful pollution in these communities, truck manufacturers, truck fleets and the oil industry have been working to weaken, delay or roll back these standards. While testifying, litigating and spreading myths in the media at every opportunity to say they can’t meet stronger standards, they publicly make it seem like they support them. Truck-makers are even rolling out electric trucks to meet the growing demand for pollution-free technologies.

To directly refute pervasive and damaging myths about electric trucks spread by industry, we’re hosting a special event during Climate Week to serve up a “truth sandwich” fact sheet. 

A “truth sandwich” is a visual educational tool that addresses misinformation by serving digestible facts about a subject (top slice), addressing misinformation (meat or protein), and then summarizing the reality (bottom slice). Using this format, we’ll shed light on the readiness of electric trucks, the health benefits of eliminating diesel exhaust, the savings pollution-free trucks can deliver for fleets and society, and the strategic rollout of charging infrastructure.

For example, here is the “protein” in our “Breathe Easy Baguette”:

• Nationwide, harmful air pollution in Latino neighborhoods is strongly tied to the transportation industry.
• Burning fuels produces soot. This fine particulate pollution (aka PM2.5) lodges deep in the lungs and cuts lives short.
• Nearly 90.7 million people live in counties with failing grades for particle pollution.
• By moving to electric trucks and clean power, U.S. counties with major trucking routes could prevent at least 66,800 premature deaths by 2050.

Bad actors in the industry are doing their best to push misinformation about truck electrification while diesel pollution continues to cut lives short in communities of color. We’re excited to serve up some truth. 

Buen provecho!