Michigan Steps Up to Clean Heavy-Duty Vehicle Pollution and Save Fleets Money

On October 15, EGLE announced its 2026 Michigan Clean Heavy-Duty Vehicles Program, making up to $4.29 million available to replace eligible Class 6 and Class 7 diesel refuse trucks with zero-emission battery-electric vehicles and associated charging equipment.  

This is exactly the kind of targeted public investment that Michigan needs. 

Garbage, recycling, compost, and food-waste trucks operate day after day in Michigan neighborhoods, often at low speeds and close to homes, schools, and businesses. These trucks are significant contributors to localized air pollution. Replacing them with battery-electric models can eliminate harmful exhaust while also reducing noise. 

EGLE is rightfully prioritizing projects where reducing pollution can have an especially meaningful impact, including ozone nonattainment or maintenance areas and counties with high asthma burdens, such as Macomb, Oakland, and Wayne counties. According to the American Lung Association, diesel pollution is linked with lung cancer, all-cause mortality, and circulatory and heart diseases; asthma onset in both children and adults; and acute lower respiratory infections in children. The case for building on this grant program and fully phasing out diesel pollution is strong; the American Lung Association estimates that between 400 to 600 deaths can be avoided in Oakland and Wayne counties alone if fleets operating within those counties fully transition to zero-emission trucks. 

The state is also investing approximately $28 million through its fiscal year 2026 Fuel Transformation Program, announced in May and funded through the Volkswagen Diesel Emissions Environmental Mitigation Trust.  

The program addresses a much wider range of diesel vehicles and equipment, including school and transit buses, freight trucks, locomotives, ferries and marine engines, airport ground-support equipment, forklifts, and cargo-handling equipment. Funding can also support shore-power systems for Great Lakes vessels.  

EGLE is focusing on projects that achieve significant reductions in nitrogen oxides and fine particulate matter; improve air quality in heavily populated areas, freight corridors, and ports; and advance zero-emission and alternative-fuel technologies. Diesel vehicles, engines, or equipment replaced or repowered through the program must be permanently decommissioned.  

These investments can take older, higher-polluting equipment out of service and reduce harmful diesel emissions, particularly when resources are directed toward high-emitting sources and communities heavily affected by transportation pollution. 

There is, however, an important distinction between EGLE’s two programs. 

The Clean Heavy-Duty Vehicles Program draws a clear line: A diesel refuse truck must be replaced with a zero-emission vehicle. The Fuel Transformation Program is broader, supporting the replacement or repowering of diesel vehicles and engines while prioritizing projects that advance zero-emission and alternative-fuel technologies.  

Replacing an older diesel engine with a newer one can reduce certain harmful pollutants. But it also extends a fleet’s reliance on diesel fuel, which does nothing to get Michigan fleets off the diesel price roller coaster. 

Michigan should build on EGLE’s good work by directing public funding toward zero-emission replacements wherever the technology can meet a fleet’s operational needs rather than using limited clean air dollars to lock fleets into another generation of diesel equipment. 

EGLE deserves credit for directing significant resources toward high-emitting diesel vehicles and equipment and prioritizing investments in places where reducing pollution can matter most. Public incentives are especially valuable for helping fleets overcome the up-front costs of zero-emission vehicles and the infrastructure needed to operate them. 

Michigan can make those investments even more durable by increasingly directing transportation funding in these programs toward zero-emission technology rather than replacement diesel engines. 

The goal should be straightforward: Retire the highest-polluting vehicles first, protect the communities most affected by their pollution, and use limited public dollars to move Michigan toward a transportation system that ultimately does not depend on diesel.