Clean Transportation

Clean Transportation

Clean Transportation

Revolutionizing our transportation systems is a crucial piece of Sierra Club's work to ensure we all can live in healthy communities, move around safely, and build a future powered by renewable energy.



What is clean transportation?

We all want to breathe clean air and protect our families from toxic pollution and climate change. Unfortunately, transportation is currently our nation's largest source of greenhouse gas emissions and a major source of air pollution. To build a livable future, we must shift away from fossil fuel-powered vehicles and towards clean, renewable transportation.

Right now, Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress want to make it harder to drive clean cars, which will increase how much money you spend at the pump. We can stop them, but we need your help to protect access to public transportation, electric vehicles, and other clean transportation options.

Over the lifetime of the vehicle, a gas car puts out 4.5x more carbon pollution and infinitely more toxic tailpipe air pollution than an electric car.

Why is clean transportation essential?

We all want to breathe clean air and protect our families from toxic pollution and climate change. Unfortunately, transportation is currently our nation's largest source of greenhouse gas emissions and a major source of air pollution. To build a livable future, we must shift away from combustion vehicles and towards clean transportation.

Victory!

In a landmark legal win for clean transportation, a federal court has permanently barred the Trump administration from freezing funds for the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program – that is, a $5 billion federal initiative to build reliable, high-speed electric vehicle charging stations along America's highways!

The ruling means all 50 states, Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico now have the legal certainty they need to move forward building a nationwide charging network, free from unlawful interference. Sierra Club and partners brought this case on behalf of members who were directly harmed by the freeze.

This is what people power looks like: Sierra Club members standing up to protect clean transportation investment, cleaner air, and better access to affordable electric vehicle driving for everyone.

July 17, 2019

TALLAHASSEE, FL -- Today, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) released its draft plan for how the state proposes to spend $166 million from the national Volkswagen Environmental Mitigation Trust. Florida is the last state to release a draft plan for its settlement money, while other states have already invested monies into existing clean transportation initiatives.

June 20, 2019

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today, two subcommittees of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce held a hearing on the Trump Administration’s planned rollback of the fuel economy and greenhouse gas emissions, known as the Clean Car Standards. The hearing was peppered with hard-hitting questions about the wide-spread and devastating role the proposed rollback will have on public health, the environment, consumers, and the auto industry itself.

May 14, 2019

Nationwide -- Throughout the month of April, the first ever annual Drive Electric Earth Day was held, with 188 events taking part across the United States, as well as Canada, the Dominican Republic, Mexico and New Zealand.

April 30, 2019

LOS ANGELES, CA -- On Monday, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti unveiled the updated “Sustainable City pLAn,” an ambitious roadmap establishing climate goals that will guide the city’s equitable environmental and economic future. The plan includes a commitment to power all of the city’s energy sectors -- its electricity, buildings, and transportation -- with carbon-free sources of energy by 2050.

April 25, 2019

New York, NY -- Today, ElectrifyNY, a new coalition of environmental justice, public transportation, public health, and good jobs advocates, launched its campaign for a clean, equitable electric transportation future for the state of New York.

April 21, 2019

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today, the Sierra Club released a newly updated electric vehicle (EV) guide at a time of increasing excitement around the expansion of the EV market in the United States. The evidence of growing user demand keeps mounting: 1 in 5 U.S.

April 5, 2019

Nationwide -- This April, the first annual Drive Electric Earth Day is being held, with over 150 events across the United States, as well as Canada, New Zealand, and the Dominican Republic, celebrating the significant and wide-ranging benefits of electric vehicles (EVs). EVs reduce emissions from transportation -- currently the leading sector contributing to carbon pollution -- in addition to improving public health and providing fuel and maintenance savings for consumers.

April 4, 2019

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- As policymakers, the auto industry and the public converge on the Washington Auto Show, public interest groups t

March 18, 2019

NEW YORK CITY, NY -- In a recently released newsletter, New York City’s Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS) highlighted that the electric vehicles in its city fleet -- compared to vehicles fueled by oil and gas -- are providing dramatic cost savings for the City due to lower maintenance costs.

March 12, 2019

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Yesterday, at the CERAWeek energy conference in Houston, a Shell executive said that electricity could squeeze out oil and gas as the main source of fuel for transportation in the next twenty years, and that with its own customers, the company is seeing significant shifts to electricity whenever possible. Shell has recently invested relatively small sums of money into electric vehicle charging infrastructure.