It’s no surprise that COP 27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt closed with few groundbreaking headlines. Going in, we knew it would be a “working COP” focused on steps to advance the commitments made at previous gatherings. And while some important steps were made on technical issues and a historic agreement on funding arrangements for loss and damage was sparked, there was real progress in the fight to reduce methane, the pollutant driving nearly a third of current warming.
By Ben Hmiel and Jon Goldstein
After three years of actively collecting methane emissions data in the Permian Basin, researchers have gained new insights that will make it easier to reduce emissions of the incredibly potent greenhouse gas methane. These insights are helping inform state and federal regulatory approaches at a critical time.
After decades of sailing under the radar, international shipping and its climate impact is gradually getting more attention from other actors than just environmental non-governmental organizations. The shift has also been obvious at the most recent UN Climate Change Conferences.
This summer, California made national news by adopting a rule that will require all new passenger vehicle sales to be zero emission by 2035. At the same time, the state is also considering a complementary rule to replace medium- and heavy-duty trucks and buses to also be zero emissions. To support this transition, California will need to make a major investment in electric vehicle charging infrastructure.
The California Energy Commission estimates that by 2030 California may need up to 1.2 million EV chargers to support an estimated eight million passenger electric vehicles and an additional 157,000 chargers to support non-passenger vehicles, such as trucks and buses. There are currently over 1.2 million electric passenger vehicles on California’s roads, and significantly fewer chargers than will be needed in 2030. The charging needs of trucks and buses are vastly different from those of private cars — in terms of power demands, locations and access — just to name a few. Unlocking both private and public charging for these vehicles will be a foundational investment to ensure the transition to zero-emission vehicles happens as quickly as possible.
In the fall of 2021, after much effort by EDF and other stakeholders, Congress included $4.7 billion in funding as part of the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, to close as many “orphan” wells as possible, with a focus on leaky wells near communities.
This is the first installment of a two-part blog series about zero-emission truck and bus charging infrastructure in New Jersey.
Electrifying transportation — particularly trucks and buses — is among the key elements New Jersey’s Energy Master Plan identifies to help the state decarbonize its economy by 2050. It is one of the most powerful ways to reduce pollution, improve equity and health and spark economic growth throughout the state. In 2021, New Jersey became the first state in the Northeast to adopt the Advanced Clean Trucks rule — requiring manufactures to produce zero-emission trucks and buses. The state is also a signatory to the Northeast States for Coordinated Air Use Management’s Multi-State Medium- and Heavy-Duty Zero Emission Vehicle Memorandum of Understanding, requiring 30% of vehicle sales to be zero-emission by 2030. To enable these benefits and support meeting New Jersey’s electric truck and bus adoption goals, sufficient and timely charging infrastructure is necessary.