CITY OF OAKLAND
CITY HALL • 1 FRANK H. OGAWA PLAZA • OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA 94612 #LoveLife
REBECCA KAPLAN SHENG THAO DAN KALB Vice Mayor President Pro Tem Councilmember District At Large District 4 District 1 City Council
January 18, 2021
File # 21-0951
1 Date: January 18, 2021
To: Members of City Council and Members of the Public
From: Vice Mayor Kaplan, President Pro Tem Thao, and Councilmember Kalb Re: Resolution Asking The California Legislature To Create, Expand, And Fund A “Cash For Clunkers” Program For Heavy Duty Freight Trucks, To Provide An Incentive For The Removal Of Heavily Polluting Trucks From Street And Highways In Order To Reduce Air Pollution Impacts On Low-Income and Other Hard-Hit Communities
Dear Colleagues on the City Council and Members of the Public,
Transitioning truck fleets away older diesel vehicles is vital to reducing the negative health impacts of air pollution and climate change on our community. Diesel trucks and other mobile sources of emissions are the largest contributors to the formation of ozone, greenhouse gas emissions, fine particulate matter, and toxic diesel particulate matter. Exposure to these emissions creates serious health burdens, especially for residents in East and West Oakland, who are disproportionately exposed to diesel particulate matter from trucks. This resolution, therefore, calls upon the State to take action and create a “Cash for Clunkers” incen tive program to provide funding for people to be paid to turn in older, heavily-polluting diesel trucks, so they can be removed from service and thus, removed from polluting our communities. Similar programs already exist for passenger cars, and these programs, commonly referred to as “cash for clunkers,” or vehicle buy–back programs, are supported by State funding, and many are then run at the regional level. But they do not yet exist for trucks, even though the need is greater.
(Eg: https://www.baaqmd.gov/funding-and-incentives/residents/vehicle-buy-back-program )
Encircled by major freeways and truck routes, and home to an active port, Oakland experiences relatively higher air pollution levels, and corresponding negative health impacts, compared to its counterparts in other parts of the Bay Area. Even within the City of Oakland, Black and Brown communities, and lower income communi ties in East and West Oakland experience a disparate impact of air pollutants, specifically from truck traffic. According to a 2008 report by the
California Air Resources Board (CARB), West Oakland residents are exposed to air concentrations of diesel pollution that are almost three times higher than average levels in the Bay Area, and 71 percent of air pollution risk was attributable to truck traffic.
2 The map below from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District’s Community Air Risk Evaluation Retrospective Report corroborates this1.
As you can see, despite cancer risk from air pollution notably improving from 2005- 2015, for communities in East and West Oakland, the risk remains high.
Recently, a 2021 study
conducted by the Environmental Defense Fund and George Washington University also observed air pollutant -attributable health burdens vary substantially between neighborhoods. Through their analysis, they found exposure to the traffic -related pollutant nitrogen dioxide resulted in more than 2,500 deaths and 5,200 new childhood asthma cases every year. Specifically, our hard- hit neighborhoods are exposed to higher concentrations of air pollutants such as black carbon, nitric oxide and nitrogen dioxide compared to the rest of Alameda County according to data from the Alameda County Public Health Department. This exposure is connected to higher rates of asthma-related emergency room visits, and greater risk of stroke and congestive heart failure.
1 See Page 2 of the Bay Area Air Quality Management District’s Community Air Risk Evaluation Program Retrospective & Path Forward (2004 - 2013) Report
3 The State has taken measures and set emission reduction goals for mobile sources to combat these serious environmental and health challenges. On September 23, 2020, Governor Newsom signed Executive Order N-79-20, making it a goal of the State that 100 percent of medium - and heavy- duty vehicles in California be zero -emission by 2045 and 100 percent of drayage trucks be zero- emission by 2035. In addition, the California Legislature ha s created some programs to support the transition of truck fleets to zero-emission.
However, an equivalent program to the Bay Area Air Quality Management District’s “Vehicle Buy Back Program,” which offered drivers $1200 to turn in their older, less fuel-efficient working cars or small trucks for scrapping - does not yet exist for trucks. It does not make sense and does not support environmental justice, for the State to fund the collection only of older cars, which can be found often in more affluent and white communities, but not to fund the collection of older heavily-polluting trucks, which cause more harm, and are more disparately concentrated. For these reasons, this resolution urges the State to take action and incentivize the transition to zero-emission truck fleets and the removal of older heavily -polluting trucks by creating a “Cash for Clunkers” program for trucks to pay to remove heavily polluting diesel trucks from our roads.