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Advanced Clean Trucks Mandate in Oregon: What You Need to Know

Leave it to California to come up with utopian legislation with no practical way to meet the requirements, and you can be assured that Oregon will follow their lead. Welcome to the Advanced Clean Trucks (ACT) rules which our state government in their infinite wisdom has signed onto and has been implemented as of January 1, 2025.

Essentially the rule states that 7% of the trucks a manufacturer sells in Oregon this year must be electric, with the percentage increasing every year until reaching 40% of all heavy trucks sold in 2032. The goal of this program is to reduce carbon emissions 80% below 1990 levels by 2050, which would seem like a lofty goal and a long runway. Unfortunately, the physical and logistical barriers to achieving the goals of this legislation are significant, and some say insurmountable. Some of those obstacles:

  1. Oregon has only one heavy truck charging station. As one online commenter mentioned, the only good news is that we are one charger away from doubling our capacity!
  2. These rules are specific to west coast states and therefore dealers and manufacturers can transfer their business to other states, leaving Oregon in an uncompetitive position, which will likely increase the cost of these vehicles.
  3. There is no market for electric trucks. In 2023, Oregon dealers sold 1,708 heavy trucks and only nine of those were electric.

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The reason that we must rush into unattainable legislation is, of course, that we must save ourselves from ourselves. According to the Oregon Journalism Project, heavy trucks comprise 4% of vehicles and about 23% of harmful emissions. It sounds terrible, but makes obvious sense as trucks transport 71.6% of all the goods in the United States—truly doing all the heavy lifting. 

Virtually every product available on store shelves has been delivered by truck. Of course, this doesn’t consider that since implementing clean diesel technology in 1974, pollutants from trucks have been reduced by 99% (according to data from multiple trucking associations). Another comparison is that 60 trucks today equal the output of one in 1988.

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I’m reminded of the fact that we live in the real world, and at times perfection is unattainable. For example, 22-carat gold is only 91% pure because at some point you are spending more money to refine the product than the value it produces. A reduction of 99% over the last 50 years seems pretty darn good to me. We should be congratulating ourselves on a job well done. It’s difficult to see the value in pushing these onerous mandates which increase the cost of all goods, especially in an inflationary period.

These mandates could significantly raise the cost of transportation, which would then be passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices for groceries, building materials, and everyday goods. Studies have shown that electric heavy-duty trucks cost anywhere from two to three times more than traditional diesel trucks, further straining businesses already dealing with inflationary pressures.

TT Mike Mohr our Plant 2 Manager just forwarded this pic

We run about 45 heavy trucks here at Freres Engineered Wood. About a third of our fleet is hauling logs from logging sites, and the remainder are hauling our own veneer, plywood, chips, bark, and mass timber products throughout the west coast. We have aggressively upgraded our fleet ahead of these rules and will likely not purchase more heavy tractors until there is certainty in the rule making.

We pride ourselves on being an innovative company and consider technology as a means to maintain a competitive advantage and improve the efficiency of our operations. If the technology made sense, we would not need a gun to our head to adopt it. Encourage your representatives to tell Governor Kotek to kill the ACT.

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