“If we look at the goals we’ve set that represent getting in all the different electric buses and charging, and everything else in place, we’ve got a lot of work to do,” said Matt Petersen, president and CEO of the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI).
Petersen highlighted the recent Paris Olympics to show the international wattage an Olympics shines on a host city; and to encourage Los Angeles and the United States to advance clean transportation and energy, showing the world not only what’s possible, but what’s essential.
“How do we really make sure we’re getting more solar and battery storage in place where there’s vulnerable parts of the grid, to reduce the demand on the grid as we add more charging infrastructure?” Petersen said.
LACI has often suggested the 2028 Games could be an ideal catalyst to jumpstart clean energy and clean transportation goals, like the electrification of heavy-duty transportation such as the thousands of drayage trucks serving the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, and the equally numerous city buses. These are the kinds of changes, the CEO said, that will continue to benefit the region long after the Games.
“L.A. is going to be the showcase for the world. And every investment we make here has a long-term benefit for the lives of Angelenos and people across the region. So, how do we prioritize that?” he said.
The region has been working to position itself for a transportation future that’s close to zero emissions; some $15 million has been invested in heavy-duty charging near the ports, according to Petersen. Now, he said, “we’re focused on accelerating that. How do we bring hundreds of millions of dollars.”
LACI is advising organizations like L.A. Metro, the Mobile Source Air Pollution Reduction Review Committee, and the ports on how to spend $500 million awarded to South Coast Air Quality Management District. Arriving in the form of a federal EPA Climate Pollution Reduction Grant, the money will be used to develop climate pollution reduction strategies. A significant build-out of charging infrastructure will likely be part of the effort.
“Really, we’re looking at how in the next couple of years, how do we accelerate that investment, and work with the next presidential administration to see that we need to invest here,” Petersen said.
That investment is needed, say those in the trucking logistics industry, to transition the region’s trucking sector away from internal combustion engines. The hardest part, said Rudy Diaz, founder and CEO of Hight Logistics in Long Beach, is the infrastructure.
“So, you get the truck, you have it delivered, and now it’s, ‘Where am I going to charge?’” he said.
Hight, formed in 2011, has been transitioning its 50 diesel trucks to battery electric; by November, it will have as many as 20 electric trucks with six fast chargers, or about 40 percent of its fleet. Another 10 e-trucks will be delivered in 2025.
The move has been driven in part by state requirements like the California Advanced Clean Fleets rule, which sets an advanced pace for moving heavy-duty and medium-duty fleet trucks to zero-emission vehicles. Diaz credits the state’s generous incentives and subsidies like the Hybrid and Zero-Emission Truck and Bus Vouchers Incentive Project, and the ports, for helping operators purchase the trucks, covering about 90 percent of the cost.
“Without those incentives we wouldn’t be able to do what we do,” he said, adding, “I’ve done the numbers, and believe it or not, the electric truck is cheaper now.”
That said, Hight Logistics may be an outlier. Petersen said the number of electric drayage trucks in L.A. has “ticked up in modest terms” from 200 earlier this year — possibly adding another 100 or 200 at most.
“We’re way behind,” he said. “And we’re way behind if we’re going to meet the zero-emission drayage trucks policy that’s been placed by the mayors of L.A. and Long Beach and the two port commissions, as well as the governor.”
Like Diaz, Petersen sees a need for more high-speed truck-charging infrastructure, for which LACI has been aggressively courting funding and planning infrastructure locations.
LACI has applied for a $50 million U.S. Department of Energy grant, which would be leveraged by another $56 million matching grant from the state and other sources to invest in the local electric grid network and create a virtual power plant.
These are the kinds of steps — by local, state and federal initiatives — that could move the region toward its zero-emission goals by the 2028 Olympics. But for truck operators like Diaz, who live in the L.A. Basin and breathe its air, the steps he is taking to make his business cleaner are his contribution to improving life for Angelenos and addressing the climate crisis.
“Yes, it’s hard, and it’s costly, and it may give you other problems that you don’t want to deal with,” he said. “But, if we want everything easy, then we’re not going to solve our problem. We have a climate crisis.”
