About the team
Each month the newsletter features one of the many firms that are contributing to the Oakland Global project. This month: 44 Energy Technologies.
44 Energy Technologies (44 Energy), an Oakland-based company focused on energy, transportation and environmental technologies, is the newest member of the Oakland Global Trade and Logistics Center team.
44 Energy joins the team as air quality issues related to the construction and operations of Oakland Global (Oakland Army Base project) remain a top priority for the City of Oakland, developers, regulators and community members.
The development agreement between the city and developers requires scores of mitigation measures aimed at minimizing new emissions related to construction and new facilities that will replace the obsolete army base, which was built in the early 1940s.
Most of the mitigation measures are expected to be detailed in written plans on specific topics. Examples include a construction management plan, truck management plan, maritime and rail-related emissions reduction plan and a truck diesel emissions reduction plan.
So far, 44 Energy has worked with the developers, the city and regulators to devise the best strategies to fulfill or exceed construction mitigation measures. Construction is expected to start in Fall 2013 and to continue for approximately four years. As a result, the development team has already drafted a construction management plan. Other plans will follow as more is known about Oakland Global’s new facilities, tenants and operations.
44 Energy is a good fit for the project because the company has extensive experience helping to reduce Bay Area truck emissions. 44 Energy CEO Brad Edgar and co-founder Juston Smithers worked directly on the design, manufacture and implementation of diesel emission retrofit systems that allowed trucks to comply with strict 2009 state truck emission standards.
As a result of the regulations, approximately 800 of the trucks that serve the Port of Oakland were retrofitted and about 200 were replaced. State officials estimated that the rule changes and related funding resulted in an 85 percent reduction in port-serving diesel truck emissions. Meanwhile, a recent University of California report shows that state rules limiting emissions from diesel trucks, buses and off-road vehicles, have taken the equivalent of four million cars off California roads every year since the late 1980s.
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