EDF launches ad urging North Carolina leaders to accelerate the state’s transition to electric trucks and buses

Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) launched a digital ad campaign highlighting the benefits of truck and bus electrification, including cleaner air, healthier communities and a stronger economy. The campaign urges North Carolina leaders to take action to accelerate the state’s transition to electric trucks and buses. North Carolina is well-positioned to lead in clean transportation, having set important electric vehicle goals through Executive Order No. 246 and joined a multi-state collaboration to advance zero-emissions trucks and buses. 

Click here to watch the ad.

“Transportation is the leading contributor of climate-warming emissions in North Carolina, and trucks and buses produce a disproportionate amount of air pollution associated with poor health outcomes,” said Marilynn Marsh-Robinson, Senior Manager of Partnerships & Outreach. “Deploying policies to electrify trucks and buses can improve air quality, particularly in overburdened communities, and position the state to reap billions in net health and economic benefits.”

As the ad emphasizes, even though trucks and buses only comprise about 6 percent of vehicles on North Carolina roads, they’re responsible for more than 60 percent of the sector’s air pollution that is linked with asthma, heart attacks, lost work days and other impacts that put families’ health and wellbeing at risk. The only way North Carolina can make a meaningful impact to reduce health-harming pollution and meet its carbon reduction goals is to tackle the electric power and transportation sectors in parallel, and electrifying trucks and buses is a huge part of that equation.