California is scrapping its ambitious plans to ban diesel trucks and mandate cleaner locomotives. The reason? The incoming Trump administration is unlikely to approve the onerous one-size-fits-all regulations.
Via CalMatters:
State officials have long considered the rules essential to cleaning up California’s severe air pollution and combating climate change.
The withdrawal comes after the Biden administration recently approved California Air Resources Board’s (CARB) mandate phasing out new gas-powered cars, but had not yet approved waivers for four other clean-vehicle rules the state adopted.
Why? President Trump plans to scrap zero-emission vehicle rules and California’s clean-air waivers, so Gov. Newsom withdrew the state’s request for EPA approval as the ‘state recalibrates‘ under the Trump administration.
“California has withdrawn its pending waiver and authorization requests that U.S. EPA has not yet acted on,” Air Resources Board Chair Liane Randolph said in a statement.
“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.”
California’s Advanced Clean Fleet rule to get rid of diesel trucks is one of the most sweeping and talked-about rules the state has made in recent years to cut down on air pollution and greenhouse gases.
It would have ended the sale of new fossil-fuel trucks in 2036 and required large trucking companies to convert their medium and heavy-duty fleets to electric or hydrogen models by 2042.
The truck fleet rule, approved in 2022 after years of analysis, public hearings, and discussions with industries and experts, was one of the most controversial and aggressive rules the board has ever adopted.
Critics say California regulators are breaking the law by forcing out diesel trucks in favor of electric ones, accusing the Golden State of colluding with the biggest heavy-duty truck companies to ban traditional combustion engines by 2036.
Trucking companies had already sued the state to stop the rule, saying it is infeasible to mandate zero-emission trucks and would destroy the state’s economy.
Despite serving as a CARB Board Member for 16 years and helping develop the truck fleet rule, Daniel Sperling said there were issues from the beginning.
“What you’re doing is telling all of these truck fleets, thousands of truck fleets, that they must purchase these vehicles,” Sperling said.
Read full article at CalMatters
