California Leaders Listen to Community Demanding Action to Clean up Deadly Diesel Pollution

Yesterday, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a budget that includes a win for communities seeking relief from the freight industry’s deadly air pollution. After dedicated advocacy from community groups, this budget includes significant investments to continue cleaning up dirty trucks and buses. This is a big deal.

It has never been more urgent for California to double down on clean transportation investments. The California Air Resources Board found that the dismantling of California’s critical transportation standards by the federal government will send 14,500 Californians to an early death in the next two decades.

Federal attacks are also jeopardizing clean energy jobs, including clean vehicle manufacturing, which are a key part of California’s economy. In 2024, California’s clean energy economy employed 552,300 workers. The state’s clean vehicles sector employed a total of 72,641 workers. Employment in clean vehicles has grown 75 percent since 2020 compared to the state’s gas and diesel vehicle sector, which has been losing jobs since 2021. California simply cannot afford to abandon its investments in clean transportation.

The budget passed in California today features a $135.5 million investment in clean vehicles through the California Air Resources Board’s Clean Truck and Bus Voucher Incentive Project (HVIP). This program supports businesses, schools, and public transit agencies eager to kick their dirty diesel habits by helping them overcome upfront costs associated with the transition to nonpolluting trucks and buses. This is a win-win for our lungs and our businesses. Not only do these non-polluting vehicles make our streets quieter and our air cleaner, they also spare companies from dealing with very expensive and wildly fluctuating diesel prices.

Earlier budget proposals had no funds allocated for HVIP, an omission that led a broad coalition of groups —including fenceline communities, health and environmental advocates, labor leaders, and the electric vehicle industry — to head to the Capitol for the first-ever California Electric Fest. The event showed leaders in Sacrament that there is real people power behind the demand to cut truck pollution and showed leaders what the transition to clean vehicles actually looks like. There was even an all-electric ice cream truck.

Advocates gather outside the California State Capitol to urge leaders to invest in clean transportation (Chris Jordan-Bloch for Earthjustice)

Clearly, the message resonated.

In addition to funding for HVIP, the budget includes $135.5 million to help individuals transition to electric vehicles (EV) and $17 million for equity investments in Clean Cars for All, a program that offers income-eligible Californians rebates to replace highly polluting vehicles with a new or used EV.

The Trump Administration has done everything it can to undermine the American EV industry, ceding all ground to Chinese and European automakers. But California leaders are showing that we don’t have to follow suit. That’s why it’s encouraging to see the world’s fourth largest economy invest in making sure our auto industry does not get completely left in the dust.

This budget deal will save lives. California is demonstrating that we don’t need to cower in the face of relentless federal attacks to derail our vision for a healthier and more prosperous future. We are pleased Assemblymembers, Senators, and Governor Newsom stood up for our lungs and our economy in this budget deal.