Washoe County Health District Firmly Supports Governor Sisolak’s Clean Cars Nevada Initiative

The Governor’s initiative is of significance in Washoe County

Reno, Nev. June 25, 2020 – The Washoe County Health District strongly supports Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak’s Clean Cars Nevada initiative, which will evaluate the adoption of new regulations to provide Nevadans with more choices for low and zero emission electric passenger cars and trucks at dealerships throughout the state beginning in 2024.

“Any effort to ensure that the air quality for the residents of Washoe County is to remain clean and healthy now and into the future must include reducing emissions from the transportation sector,” said Francisco Vega, Director of the Washoe County Air Quality Management Division.  “We look forward to working with all stakeholders to make sure that the final regulation makes sense for the residents of Washoe County and Nevada as a whole and aims to accomplish its intended goal of reducing harmful emissions while also diversifying and strengthening our economy.”

The new set of regulations being proposed would incorporate two parts of California’s benchmarks that would set new tailpipe emission standards for light and medium-duty vehicles sold in the state starting in 2024 and also require dealerships to sell a certain percentage of zero-emission vehicles. Nevada would be joining 14 other jurisdictions the have adopted the stricter California regulations including Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington state and Washington, D.C. Two other states, New Mexico and Minnesota, have announced their intentions to adopt the regulations, as well.

The Governor’s Clean Cars Nevada initiative is of significance locally because Washoe County is on the verge of exceeding the health-based National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for ozone established by the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA).

Read Gov. Sisolak’s press release here.

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The Washoe County Health District is nationally accredited by the Public Health Accreditation Board and has jurisdiction over all public health matters in Reno, Sparks, and Washoe County through the policy-making Washoe County District Board of Health. The District consists of five divisions: Administrative Health Services, Air Quality Management, Community and Clinical Health Services, Environmental Health Services and Epidemiology & Public Health Preparedness. More info can be found here.