Beyond Clean Cars
Reducing Emissions from Medium and Heavy Duty Vehicles
16 states and the District of Columbia have signed onto the Memorandum of Understanding for Medium and Heavy Duty Vehicles (MOU MHD). We want Minnesota to be next.
What is the MOU MHD?
This memorandum sets a 2050 goal for all new medium and heavy duty vehicles to be zero emission, with an interim 2030 goal of 30% zero-emission sales. These changes would make for a necessary intervention after our state’s challenges meeting the Next Generation Energy Act, signed by Governor Pawlenty in 2007. Aiming to cut emissions by 30% by 2025 and 80% by 2050, our state has cut our emissions by a meager 8% since 2005.
Add your name: sign on in support of the MOU MHD
The Coalition for Clean Transportation is currently collecting signatures to show support for Governor Walz to make Minnesota the next state to sign onto the MOU. We will present this letter to the governor in mid-January, 2022. We are currently asking policymakers and organizations to add their names in support of this action. Review the letter and add your name here.
Why reduce truck emissions?
Continued pollution from vehicles doesn’t just hurt our environment, it hurts our communities.
Medium and heavy-duty vehicles disproportionately emit harmful criteria pollutants, such as Nitrogen Oxide (NOx) and Particulate Matter (PM2.5), which are linked to asthma, bronchitis, cancers, and premature deaths. Although medium and heavy-duty vehicles comprise 10 percent of all vehicles on the road in the US, they account for nearly 25 percent of total U.S. climate pollution and 45 percent of NOx emissions for the entire transportation sector.
Due to historical and ongoing racism in road placement and underinvestment in BIPOC communities, these communities are 61% more likely to be exposed to these harmful levels of air pollution. According to the MPCA's Life and Breath report, between 2,000 and 4,000 Minnesotans die each year due to air quality issues. Changing our state’s medium and heavy duty vehicle fleets to zero emission is not just an issue of climate justice, it is an issue of equity and racial justice.
Clean trucks are gaining traction on their own, too, with over 70 electric truck models on the market and dozens more to come in future years. Toronto, Los Angeles, and the state of Virginia are just a few places in North America that have successfully implemented use of clean trucks on a broad scale, and many of America’s largest retailers support clean trucks, too.
Last updated: October 6, 2020