Skip to main content
Stories published by the Oregon Journalism Project travel across the state. Take, for example, last week’s scoop by Nigel Jaquiss that Daimler Trucks North America would stop selling diesel trucks in Oregon because of electric truck sales quotas (“Electric Slide,” Jan. 8). The dispute was resolved (see this update) after the story appeared in publications ranging from the Blue Mountain Eagle to the Malheur Enterprise to the Philomath News. As Jaquiss’ story noted, traveling across the state is not something electric trucks can yet do, given that their maximum range is 200 miles and Oregon has just one public charging station, on Swan Island. Here’s what OJP readers had to say:
Doug McVay, via wweek.com: “Funny, isn’t it, how when some tech billionaire ‘disrupts’ an industry, bankrupting businesses and putting people out of work, it’s presented as a good thing, yet when the state ‘disrupts’ an industry to cut back on fossil fuels pollution and other environmental damage, the disruption is presented as a problem. Even funnier, the Willamette Week that I remember from years ago would have made that very point instead of publishing an article that reads like it was ghost-written by a Daimler Trucks PR flack.”
cfgman, via Reddit: “I work in logistics and this rule is a disaster. If manufacturers are forced to stop selling new trucks in Oregon, companies will be forced to buy older and less-efficient used trucks. I consider myself an environmentalist and own an electric car, but I’m worried this law will have the opposite impact it was hoping to achieve.”
Portland Moderate, via Twitter: “There’s no mystery to why Oregon lags behind even red states in many of their green initiatives.
“They can’t think beyond their aspirations and develop a cogent plan—in collaboration with the industries they’re trying to change—that can be implemented successfully.
“Requiring commercial truck manufacturers to meet EV sales quotas before having a plan for building out commercial EV chargers in the state is, well, something progressives would do; it’s a reflection of their antipathy for anything business, commercial or profit-driven and their unwillingness to engage in collaborative dialogue.
“Also a reflection of their inability to recognize that aspirations don’t translate into successful outcomes without a few intermediate steps, like planning, budgeting, sound execution of the plan, metrics to monitor progress, and accountability for failure to meet goals and timelines.
“They declare victory when they make their ceremonial announcement. Then predictably and repeatedly fail after wasting hundreds of millions of taxpayer money on their green energy scam!”
TheWarmGun, via Reddit: “Diesel trucks can drive two or three times the range of an electric truck in a day, and can fill up anywhere diesel is available.
“Maybe you could at least put chargers in the I-5 corridor before we make these sweeping BS mandates.
“Alternately, they should refine the bill to phase in as infrastructure gets built.
“Solutions to these complicated problems (climate change, pollution related disease, etc.) are never as simple as “just buy electric trucks instead of diesel,” and passing laws on that flawed logic will do nothing but waste money and accomplish nothing.”
sfab, via wweek.com: “I am in Southern California right now living through one of the state’s worst disasters that has been fueled by our inability to take the consequences of climate change seriously. I guess we will either deal with the many issues facing us in our transition away from fossil fuels or we will burn up, get blown away by bigger and stronger hurricanes or washed way by increased flooding. All getting worse because of climate change.
“Research published in the journal Nature Climate Change says that the Cascades will have smaller, faster-melting snowpack that could deplete water supplies, increase wildfire risk, and invite invasive species. Burying our heads in the sand won’t stop the disastrous impacts of climate change.”
MildredSchwab, via wweek.com: “AI’s energy needs are voracious and will soon make the green agenda (read: degrowth/anti-capitalism) moot. Only a multifuel approach to cheap energy abundance will be practical. Old-school environmentalists killed the solution 50 years ago when nuclear power was abandoned. It will come rushing back now. Imagine how many carbon emissions could have been avoided had nuclear power proliferated like it has in Western Europe, where in some countries it makes up over 50% of the grid supply.”
Letters to the editor must include the author’s street address and phone number for verification. Letters must be 250 or fewer words. Submit to: P.O. Box 10770, Portland, OR 97296 Email: mzusman@wweek.com