
California has been waiting to receive a waiver from the Environmental Protection Agency to enforce its new Advanced Clean Fleets regulation. With a new administration coming in less than a week and no waiver in sight, the state is pulling the plug on the electric mandate for large fleets.
On Tuesday, Jan. 14, the California Air Resources Board withdrew its request for a waiver to implement Advanced Clean Fleets, effectively killing the regulation that would require drayage operations and larger fleets to replace diesel trucks with zero-emission trucks. The new rules went into effect last year, but CARB could not enforce them without the waiver.
The news comes less than a month after the EPA granted California’s waiver request for Advanced Clean Cars II and Heavy-Duty Omnibus regulations. By 2035, all new passenger vehicles sold in California must be zero-direct-emission, while truck engines must reduce nitrogen oxide emission by 75% and particulate matter by 50%.
However, the EPA failed to address four other pending waiver requests from California, including Advanced Clean Fleets and similar emission regulations for locomotives, tugboats, ferries and transport refrigeration units. According to CalMatters, the EPA told CARB it did not have time to grant those waivers.
With less than a week before President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated and no action from President Joe Biden’s administration, CARB decided to preemptively kill Advanced Clean Fleets and other pending emission regulations that require permission from the federal government.
The future of Advanced Clean Fleets hinged on Biden’s EPA to grant the waiver. President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to reverse vehicle emission regulations enacted during Biden’s presidency. During his first term, Trump revoked California’s federal waiver on emission.
CARB Chair Liane Randolph said the agency is “assessing its option to continue its progress.”
“While we are disappointed that U.S. EPA was unable to act on all the requests in time, the withdrawal is an important step given the uncertainty presented by the incoming administration that previously attacked California’s programs to protect public health and the climate and has said will continue to oppose those programs,” Randolph said in a statement.
At least four federal lawsuits attempted to undo Advanced Clean Fleets after CARB signed off on it.
Last October, the Specialty Equipment Market Association filed a federal lawsuit challenging the new rules. That lawsuit was preceded by complaints filed by the California Trucking Association, American Free Enterprise Chamber of Commerce and a coalition of more than a dozen Republican states. The Western States Trucking Association is suing CARB in state court.
It is not clear what the fate of those lawsuits will be now that Advanced Clean Fleets appears to be dead. SEMA said that its “lawsuit remains active as the organization considers the implications of California’s action.”
Damage done
Even though Advanced Clean Fleets was never enforceable, many trucking companies in California felt like they were strong-armed into complying anyway, forcing them to make costly decisions.
Advanced Clean Fleets was supposed to go into effect in January 2024. However, CARB was not allowed to enforce the new rules without the EPA waiver. Just days before the new regulation was to be implemented, CARB issued an enforcement notice informing the public that it would not enforce it.
But there was a catch. That notice also made it clear that CARB would retroactively enforce Advanced Clean Fleets rules once it received the required waiver.
“Once the waiver is granted or determined to be unnecessary, fleets may need to remove any vehicle from the California fleet that was not eligible to be added to the California fleet after Jan. 1, 2024, or the fleet must elect to comply with the Zero-Emission Vehicle (ZEV) Milestone Option instead of the Model Year Schedule,” CARB’s notice stated.
Throughout all of 2024, fleets could technically buy as many diesel trucks as they wanted. However, the looming threat of the EPA waiver had the same effect as Advanced Clean Fleets being in full force. Fleets did not want to invest in diesel trucks only to have them taken away.
Fleets faced with making capital expenditure decisions, such as truck acquisitions, had to decide whether to roll that dice. Consequently, decisions were made that did not make business or operational sense in order to stay compliant in the event CARB received the waiver – decisions that otherwise would not have been made.
Harm was done even before CARB’s Advanced Clean Trucks enforcement notice. With the zero-emission truck mandate ahead, fleets began acquiring diesel trucks, even if they were not ready to expand or replace their fleet.
Trucking industry reaction
CARB’s abandonment of Advanced Clean Fleets drew praise from trucking stakeholders.
Todd Spencer, president of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, expressed optimism over upcoming policy changes affecting truck drivers.
“We welcome this update and look forward to working with the new administration on commonsense environmental policies that allow small-business truckers to remain viable and not forced out of business in the regulatory juggernaut,” Spencer said.
Meanwhile, the California Trucking Association pointed out that the trucking industry will continue to move forward with its efforts to address emission in a way that makes sense for all parties involved.
“The California Trucking Association has consistently stated the Advanced Clean Fleets rule was unachievable,” California Trucking Association CEO Eric Sauer said in a statement. “We look forward to engaging all stakeholders, including CARB and EPA, to continue the trucking industry’s efforts to further reduce emissions in a technologically feasible and cost-effective manner that preserves our State and the Nation’s critical supply chain.”
In its statement applauding California’s withdrawal, the Western States Trucking Association pointed out that the decision coincides with wildfires that have left areas without electricity, exacerbating issues with the electric truck charging infrastructure.
“We are pleased at this development at a time California is facing crisis that clearly illustrates the importance of heavy-duty vehicles – especially ultra-clean diesel-powered trucks in helping protect our communities and ultimately to begin the massive recovery efforts,” the association said in a statement. “This was not the time to try and push through a rule designed to transform the industry to meet the desires of a small segment of the population, especially considering many of the burn areas have been without electricity for at least a week and do not have charging facilities to handle all the trucks.”
SEMA applauded CARB’s withdrawal while calling on the agency to end all enforcement measures.
“Advanced Clean Fleets would have crippled interstate commerce by implementing harmful EV mandates on the trucking fleets that drive our nation’s economy,” SEMA President Mike Spagnola said in a statement. “Now, we demand that California immediately halt its premature implementation and enforcement action already underway. The law is clear that, without its waiver, California has no foundation upon which to implement this policy.” LL
Credit: Source link