Tag: California Air Resource Board

SacRT: delay of zero emission buses

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SacRT has decided to delay the hydrogen bus (fuel cell electric) plan to meet zero emission bus (ZEB) requirements, and will buy natural gas buses instead. This was the subject of a SacBee article: Sacramento RT to buy new natural gas buses, delaying zero-emission transition, 2026-09-09, Madison Smalstig. I had missed this, I think because the decision was scattered across several board meetings, and often on consent calendar rather than regular agenda item.

SacRT will require a waiver from CARB (California Air Resources Board) Innovative Clean Transit (ICT) program. SacRT has an approved Rollout Plan from 2021, and more recent proposals for a hydrogen fueling station at McClellan and a fleet of hydrogen fuel cell buses, including a grant (see below). Sacramento Transit Advocates and Riders (STAR) had a series of posts on SacRT’s hydrogen plans and hydrogen in general (see Tag: zero emission buses). It is clear that the hydrogen plans were not well thought out, were not environmentally sound, and were only partially funded. The grant to fund hydrogen fueling at McClellan and hydrogen buses was converted to other buses and a refurbishing at McClellan. SacRT apparently still intend to pursue the idea of hydrogen buses, but will have to start over seeking money for that.

FY24 FTA Bus and Low- and No-Emission Grant Awards: “The Sacramento Regional Transportation District will receive funding to buy new hydrogen fuel cell buses to replace older buses, modernize a maintenance facility and initiate a workforce development program. The project will create jobs and improve service, reliability and air quality as SacRT works to convert its fleet to entirely zero emission by 2028. $76,847,678”

The grant to fund hydrogen fueling at McClellan and hydrogen buses was converted to other buses and a refurbishing at McClellan. SacRT apparently still intends to pursue the idea of hydrogen buses (fuel cell electric), but will have to start over seeking money for that.

SFMTA is going with diesel-hybrid buses: Muni is too broke to use more eco-friendly buses, The San Francisco Standard, 2026-09-14. I assume other transit agencies will be making similar plans. By the way, SFMTA Muni has an incredibly low carbon footprint due to light rail and electric trolleys that run on overhead wires. Sacramento could have some of the same benefit without investing in fossil fuels by considering overhead wires. But it won’t.

Governor asks CARB for more

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CARB has released for public review the Draft 2022 Scoping Plan Update. On July 22, the governor sent a letter to CARB, asking for more ambitious and quicker goals in the Scoping Plan (Governor Newsom Calls for Bold Actions to Move Faster Toward Climate Goals).

As has been posted here, the Scoping Plan is weak, and depends far too much on motor vehicle electrification, so the governor’s letter is a good move. It includes:

  • Offshore Wind
  • Clean and Healthy Buildings
  • Moving Away from Fossil Fuels
  • Methane
  • Carbon Removal
  • Increasing Climate Ambition

What the governor’s letter, and the Scoping Plan, does not include, is bicycling and in particular electric bikes. This is a sad oversight on the part of both. Conversion of motor vehicle trips to bicycle trips and especially e-bike trips, is the shorter and lowest cost pathway to reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. CARB knows that, the governor knows that, but both are so committed to a windshield perspective and continuation of car dominance of our transportation system, that they ignore the simple steps.

The governor also announced the launch of the Climate Dashboard. On the dashboard, there are only two indicators that are red instead of green, and one is VMT. Yet despite this, the governor and CARB, and many other advocates who should know better, want to just convert fossil fuel motor vehicles to electric vehicles.

CA Climate Dashboard VMT indicator

The Climate Dashboard also includes the following graphic, often used in text, as a comparison to show progress being made. The question which logically follows is: Why not just take the cars off the road?