Tying Washington to California environmental regulators is harmful to all Washington businesses

Tying Washington to California environmental regulators is harmful to all Washington businesses. We all want a cleaner and sustainable future. And new technology will enable that, but on its own market-driven schedule. This current path is unsustainable.

Our family has been in trucking for decades. We’ve seen how hard it is to be successful in a hyper-competitive environment, where every penny matters. We’re proud to continue serving the market with some of the best brands and models available to serve the supply chain efficiently and in the most environmentally sound manner.

From a purely business standpoint, we should support a transition to EV’s at full-throttle. Our family of brands have the best research and development team available globally, and we understand what it takes to keep WA and America moving. However, today’s electric vehicle offerings are not being embraced by the market, for a number of reasons. Purchase cost is nearly 3x what a similarly equipped ICE powered vehicle costs. The range is less than four to five hours of highway speed travel. The weight is significantly more and reduces the payload meaningfully for many shippers. Maintenance staff and equipment need to be completely retrained and revamped. And finally, charging infrastructure is non-existent.

Tying Washington to California environmental regulators is harmful to all Washington businesses. Setting quotas on the market is blind and ill-informed. Those quotas reduce or in some cases eliminate customer access to the cleanest ICE technology on the market and force fleets to retain their oldest, least efficient, and least environmentally friendly equipment. And as it stands today, Washington is powerless to do anything unless and until a select group of California regulators make a change. We all want a cleaner and sustainable future. And new technology will enable that, but on its own market-driven schedule. This current path is unsustainable.

Steve Gordon, former COO of Gordon Trucking and principal, Gordon Truck Centers, a Freightliner and Western Star Dealership, serving WA, OR, CA, ID, AK and HI.