Another lawsuit challenging California’s Advanced Clean Fleets regulation has been filed. This time, truck equipment and parts manufacturers are throwing their hats into the ring.
On Tuesday, Oct. 8, the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) and National Truck Equipment Association jointly filed a federal lawsuit against the California Air Resources Board. The associations argue that CARB’s Advanced Clean Fleets rule violates federal and state law.
The Advanced Clean Fleets regulation requires certain fleets to move to zero-tailpipe-emission trucks with a phase-in timeline. Only drayage fleets, state/local agencies and high-priority fleets are affected by the regulation. High-priority fleets are those with 50 or more vehicles, fleets with more than $50 million in annual revenue, federal government fleets or entities that hire or dispatch fleets.
SEMA points out in the lawsuit that it has worked with CARB to ensure aftermarket parts meet California’s strict truck emission standards. Although the aftermarket industry “has led the way on alternative-fuel innovations,” SEMA claims Advanced Clean Fleets is counterproductive.
“The (Advanced Clean Fleets) regulations, however, far exceed California’s constitutional and state statutory authority and in many ways will undermine – rather than foster – the innovation that historically has generated so many novel ways to drive the development of cleaner, safer automobiles,” the lawsuit states.
The National Truck Equipment Association represents the work truck industry, which includes utility trucks, emergency vehicles and snow plows, to name a few. While CARB focused its Advanced Clean Fleets rules on drayage and larger trucking fleets, the association argues other vehicles affected by the new rules have been ignored.
“The (Advanced Clean Fleets) regulations fail to account for these specialized vehicles and applications, some of which are wholly unsuited for battery-electric vehicle use,” the association states in the lawsuit.
Both associations claim that Advanced Clean Fleets will decimate many of the companies they represent. Many of the products they sell will be useless in California, eliminating the nation’s largest single-state economy and the world’s fifth-largest economy from the market.
Companies adhering to CARB’s emission standards will “incur enormous operating costs to comply with expensive, cumbersome requirements.” Consequently, businesses will be “eviscerated and some may be unable to continue operations.”
This marks at least the fourth federal lawsuit attempting to undo Advanced Clean Fleets. A year ago, the California Trucking Association filed the first lawsuit. That was followed by a lawsuit filed by the American Free Enterprise Chamber of Commerce and another filed by 16 Republican-controlled states. The Western States Trucking Association is suing CARB in state court.
Like the lawsuits that came before theirs, the truck equipment associations argue that Advanced Clean Fleets violates federal law, including the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act, Dormant Commerce Clause and Equal Protection Clause.
Highlighting how Advanced Clean Fleets discriminates against out-of-state companies, the lawsuit points out that a California fleet with 49 trucks will be exempt since it falls below the 50-truck threshold. However, a multi-state fleet with 49 trucks in Nevada but just one truck in California would be subject to CARB’s new rules despite having a much smaller footprint.
The lawsuit also argues that Advanced Clean Fleets violates state law. Specifically, California Health and Safety Code 43018.5 prohibits regulations that place “a ban on the sale of any vehicle category in the state, specifically including, but not limited to, sport utility vehicles and light-duty trucks.”
“Left unchecked, the current suite of California regulations will severely curtail the ability of work truck users to obtain the vehicles they need to successfully and efficiently carry out their vital missions and support ongoing business operations in critical industries such as public works, utilities and telecommunications, emergency response, construction, food and agriculture, last-mile delivery and many others,” National Truck Equipment Association President and CEO Steve Carey said in a statement.
The associations are asking a federal court to declare Advanced Clean Fleets invalid and unenforceable and to issue a permanent injunction preventing California from implementing or enforcing the regulations.
Although California has been unable to enforce the rules as it awaits the required Environmental Protection Agency waiver, it advised affected fleets that it will retroactively enforce the rule that went into effect in January. In other words, CARB could force a company to remove any internal combustion trucks acquired after January 2024, effectively putting the new regulations in full force despite CARB not having the authority to do so officially. LL
Credit: Source link
