While Encouraged, GreenLatinos Urges More To Protect Latine Communities with Biden's Freight Corridor Strategy

Yesterday, the Biden Administration released the National Zero-Emission Freight Corridor Strategy, developed by the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation, in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The strategy presents an actionable approach creating a zero-emission freight network across the U.S. by 2040.

In response, GreenLatinos Sustainable Communities Program Director, Andrea Marpillero-Colomina, issued the following statement:

"GreenLatinos applauds the Biden Administration's innovative vision in the development of this strategy, which promises to accelerate the transition to zero-emission freight vehicles by designating hubs of high-priority investment for EV charging. This is a significant step forward in delivering clean transportation investments promised and delineated in the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. We are truly optimistic about the potential of this strategy to significantly accelerate the widespread use of zero-emissions trucks.

But while we extend our kudos, this strategy falls short in some key ways: The word “communities” appears 19 times in the full plan, but what is missing is any clearly delineated commitment to creating hubs and corridors in the Black and brown and low-income communities most burdened by the impacts of truck pollution, and any indication of how these same communities might be consulted in the creation of these hubs.

We join fellow advocates in feeling heard in this moment, and we hope that this strategy does not detract or distract from the Administration's commitment to issuing a strong “Phase 3” rule to regulate tailpipe emissions from heavy-duty vehicles. Only with a strong regulatory mandate can this visionary freight corridor strategy have the teeth to become a reality and ultimately deliver pollution relief to our most vulnerable communities."

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About GreenLatinos

GreenLatinos (NOTE: GreenLatinos is ONE WORD) is an active comunidad of Latino/a/e leaders, emboldened by the power and wisdom of our culture, united to demand equity and dismantle racism, resourced to win our environmental, conservation, and climate justice battles, and driven to secure our political, economic, cultural, and environmental liberation.