Hits to California’s clean truck rules keep coming. The latest blow rips apart an agreement that would have forced truck makers to follow the rules that Congress has since invalidated.
Before President Donald Trump was reelected, the trucking industry had been sounding the alarm on California’s vehicle emission rules. On Day 1 of his second term, President Donald Trump vowed to eliminate the “electric vehicle mandate.”
Congress responded by passing three Congressional Review Act resolutions that killed Advanced Clean Cars II, Advanced Clean Trucks and the Omnibus Low NOx regulations. Trump’s signature was supposed to seal their fate. However, California pressed on.
Immediately after California’s emission rules were reversed, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order directing the state to move forward with zero-emission policies. That includes rewarding manufacturers that comply with the state’s now-defunct emission standards.
California also filed a lawsuit challenging the controversial Congressional Review Act resolutions. Shortly after, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) issued an advisory to manufacturers letting them know they do not have to comply with its emission rules. However, they may be enforced retroactively if the state’s challenge prevails.
Despite a clear directive from the federal government that California’s clean truck rules are no longer valid, there was still a question of whether truck manufacturers are on the hook to follow them.
That’s because of a signed agreement between them and CARB.
In July 2023, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) – including Daimler, International, Paccar and Volvo – reached a deal with CARB called the Clean Truck Partnership. In exchange for longer lead times and looser NOx emission rules, OEMs agreed they would follow the stricter emission standards regardless of the state’s authority to implement them. Manufacturers also agreed not to challenge those rules, including supporting a third party that does.
In August, the Department of Justice issued OEMs a cease-and-desist letter ordering them to ignore the Clean Truck Partnership. The DOJ said the agreement violates federal law. A few days later, the Federal Trade Commission closed an antitrust probe into the agreement after OEMs agreed to ignore it.
However, Newsom’s executive order and CARB’s advisory still posed a threat. OEMs then sued California, claiming the Clean Truck Partnership is unlawful. On Halloween, they got a treat from the court.
Judge Dena Coggins has granted the OEMs’ request to bar California from enforcing the Clean Truck Partnership while litigation is ongoing.
By putting the agreement on ice, Judge Coggins, a President Joe Biden appointee, has effectively kneecapped California’s last-ditch effort to hold onto its emission rules.
California tried to argue that the OEMs face no harm from continuing to comply with the Clean Truck Partnership because they have already decided not to comply anyway. CARB pointed to statements the OEM sent to the FTC about ignoring the deal.
That argument would have held up, but California accidentally shot itself in the foot. Just days before the hearing, CARB filed a breach-of-contract lawsuit against the OEMs. That lawsuit seeks to force the OEMs to comply with CARB’s standards per the Clean Truck Partnership.
“At the time defendants raised these arguments in their opposition brief, there may have been some persuasive weight to them,” Coggins states in the order. “But whatever weight those arguments may have carried has since evaporated, and Defendants’ arguments now ring hollow.”
Evaporating with CARB’s legal arguments are any hopes of it implementing its emission rules. With the Clean Truck Partnership symbolizing its last leg to stand on, California will need a victory in its case challenging congressional resolutions. LL
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