Dear Governor Sisolak:

Today, there are too many Nevadans impacted by harmful air pollution. The American Lung Association’s 2022 State of the Air report, that studies local air pollution across the United States, Nevada’s three most populous counties – Clark, Washoe, and Lyon – each earned an “F” grade for ozone pollution. The reduction of harmful pollutants caused by burning fossil fuels is critical to improving local health today and ensuring a stable climate for future generations. Climate change is first and foremost a public health issue, and one that creates disproportionate impacts across Nevada’s diverse communities. Further, climate change is making the job of cleaning our air much more difficult as temperatures rise and drive conditions for unhealthy ozone pollution days, among other health challenges.

Passenger vehicles, and Medium and heavy-duty trucks – semis, delivery vans, and buses – contribute to toxic air pollution and GHG emissions. Nevada can further tackle pollution from transportation by implementing the Advanced Clean Truck (ACT) rule and Clean Cars II. Vehicle exhaust threatens lung health of all Nevadans, especially hundreds of thousands of children and adults with underlying lung health issues including asthma, COPD, and lung cancer. As it stands, more than 4 in 10 Americans breathe unhealthy air. For Nevadans, it is often worse with 94% of residents living in a community with poor air quality.

It's time to get big polluters off the road. Multiple states have adopted the Advanced Clean Trucks (ACT) rule to require an increasing percentage of medium-and-heavy-duty vehicles on the road to be zero-emissions. Another rule – the Heavy-Duty Omnibus (HDO) rule – would require new diesel-burning trucks to emit less health-harming pollution over time.

Nevada has taken the important step of adopting zero-emission standards for passenger vehicles and should continue to build on these rules by implementing Clean Cars II to protect and expand clean air progress.

The widespread transition to zero-emission transportation could create $7.5 billion in health, climate, and consumer benefits from now until 2050.  We urge Governor Sisolak to implement both the ACT Rule and Clean Cars II, so all Nevadans can breathe cleaner air.

Sincerely,