For Equity & Health
Oregon has a dirty diesel problem.
The fossil fuel burned by a vast majority of trucks and heavy equipment causes major damage to our health and climate, with the worst burdens falling on people with low-incomes and Black, Indigenous, and people of color.
We burn it around our schools. We burn it at construction sites. We burn it on our highways near our homes, and it creates particulate matter that sticks in the lungs and pollutes our air, soil, and water. Breathing toxic diesel pollution is linked to higher rates of premature death, cancer, heart disease, and breathing problems like asthma in kids and adults.
Oregon is behind our west coast neighbors on clean engine policy, so the oldest, most polluting trucks, buses, and vans are on our roads. Every year in Oregon, diesel engine exhaust is responsible for an estimated 176 premature deaths, 25,910 lost work days and annual costs from exposure of $3.5 billion. Oregonians pay for the damage from diesel pollution through medical and hospital bills, costly medicine, and missed days of work or school.
Doing nothing to accelerate the adoption of clean trucks is an environmental injustice. Due to racist public policies like urban renewal districts, redlining, and inner-city highway construction, low-income Oregonians and communities of color are more likely to be located near diesel death zones-- toxic concentrations of diesel pollution found in busy trucking corridors, bus depots, distribution hubs, and ports.
Race is a greater risk factor for exposure to toxic pollution than income level. Disproportionate numbers of non-white people are exposed to potentially hazardous fine particle pollution from nearly all major U.S. emission sources, regardless of where they live or how much money they make.
People experiencing poverty are exposed to 35% more air pollution than the average American.
Non-whites are exposed to 28% more than average.
Black people are exposed to a staggering 54% more air pollution than average.
Where diesel was once the only option, we now have the technology to protect Oregon school kids and people living near busy roads, highways, ports, and warehouses from deadly diesel pollution. We need rules in place to speed up the transition to cleaner and zero-emissions trucks to save lives.
In Oregon, trucks, buses, and delivery vans pump out 70% of smog pollution (NOx), 64% of black carbon (or particulate pollution), and nearly half (42%) of climate pollution from transportation, yet they’re fewer than 10% of all vehicles on the road. Those same medium- and heavy-duty vehicles, powered by electric motors, have zero tailpipe pollution, yet all the “get up and go” power of their fossil predecessors.
In the American Lung Association’s State of the Air Report Card, Oregon received failing grades for particle pollution in nearly all counties where data was collected (2017-2019).
Three metro areas in the top 25 worst for air pollution in the nation.
(Short-term particle pollution -- diesel, gasoline, wildfire smoke)
#15 Medford-Grants Pass
#19 Eugene-Springfield
#23 Portland-Salem
63,316 kids in Oregon live with asthma.
388,589 adults in Oregon live with asthma (451,905 total).
Every diesel truck, van, and bus we replace with a zero-smog, electric version, creates immediate health benefits to local communities, families, workers, and truck drivers. The urgency with which we transition to clean trucks must reflect the urgency of the health crisis caused by transportation pollution today.
One significant step for Oregon has now taken is adopting two new rules: The Advanced Clean Truck Rule and Heavy Duty Low-NOx Rule will make sure many more zero-emission and clean trucks are available for fleets, businesses, governments and others who want to transition.