I believe that we need to keep limiting carbon emissions in California. That was the topic which I set out to cover for my platform piece. However, I stumbled across this, and I need to read the proposal not just this summary but I find this perplexing. Now, I'll admit that my schooling at the New England Tractor Trailer Training School was not Harvard. And my over the road truck driving training with Swift Transportation probably made me even more of a redneck. But if there is a new legislative proposal by Richard Pan and others to end all diesel use it just baffles me.
It makes no sense for California's lawmakers to try to end the use of diesel altogether by 2030. Under the Constitution, which hopefully Richard Pan is familiar with, the states do not control interstate commerce. Now a big rig can hold let's say 200 gallons of diesel and gets about 7 miles per gallon. Such legislation would simply push all over the road trucking companies out to Arizona and Nevada and over the road truck drivers would continue to drive in and out of California the same way they always did.
That being said I think converting government busses and trucks to clean electric is a great idea. But you just can't force private industry to convert their trucks to clean electric before the technology is economical, or even exists at all. I ran a big rig over the road as part of a team with my truck parked where it could possibly be charged as little as 1 hour a day. No electric truck that exists today can do that and keep trucking the way a diesel big rig can. And natural gas power would also cause carbon emissions. Employers would fire their local driver and get someone called a freight broker to handle their load with an over the road driver from Nevada or Arizona if you tried to get rid of all diesel in California right now.
