According to the Environmental Defence Fund, “While diesel-powered trucks and buses make up only about 4% of vehicles on U.S. roads, they have an outsized impact on our climate and health”. Though it is still important to keep in mind that regular cars are a big contributor to environmental damage, cars do not scale to the pollution a 18 wheeler shipping truck can create. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, “A typical passenger vehicle emits about 4.6 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year”. Yet that does not compare to the fact that the Corovan website has that, “Diesel exhaust contains more than 40 toxic air contaminants, ozone-forming compounds (“smog”) and fine particulate matter (“soot”). Heavy-duty trucks alone emit almost 400 million metric tons of heat-trapping gases annually, accounting for about 6 percent of US carbon emissions”.  

 In this new age of innovation, electric cars are sweeping the nation with their cleaner and more efficient modes of transportation. Companies like Tesla and Ford have begun to roll out new sedan and SUV vehicles to the mass market. Yet even though the electric car craze has swept the personal consumer, there is still one sector that has not embraced this new step into the future. And those would be the trucking companies of big businesses. These are the companies that use 18-wheeler diesel trucks to deliver products all over the country. With new electric trucking models coming out, it is time that businesses start to move from their old damaging ways to a cleaner future. The new Tesla Semi truck alone only consumes 2 kWh per mile while a regular gas Semi only gets 6.5 miles a gallon.

We cannot force trucking companies and other shipping industries to change their means of transportation. Yet this petition is inquiring changes that can be made to make it easier for companies to switch. First, this petition asks for major tax cuts to all companies who have a majority of electrical shipping truck   s. Second, This petition asks that there be an increase in charging stations at rest stops and fueling stations. Just like Peter Harris, director of international sustainability at UPS says, “You can have as many EVs as you want. If you can’t recharge them, then you may as well not have them”. And finally, this petition asks for the increase of production of electric 18-wheelers from the companies producing them. Through these steps we will stop a giant chunk of pollution from reaching the atmosphere while moving one step closer to a greener future.