Governors reach out to manufacturers to meet Advanced Clean Trucks requirements

As stakeholders push back on the implementation of Advanced Clean Trucks in the handful of states that have adopted the rule, governors of those states are urging truck manufacturers to stay the course.

In a letter to the Truck and Engine Manufacturers Association, governors of nine states that have adopted Advanced Clean Trucks regulations are requesting truck manufacturers meet with appropriate state agencies to ensure they achieve the required goals. Dealerships in California are already reporting significant operational disruptions, while stakeholders in other states are asking for the start date of the new rule to be pushed back.

Advanced Clean Trucks requires manufacturers to sell increasing percentages of zero-direct-emission trucks through model year 2035.

Manufacturers can purchase credits from other manufacturers that exceed sales requirements. They also can sell more zero-emission trucks in one category while selling less in another. However, that flexibility does not apply to Class 7-8 tractors.

California first rolled out Advanced Clean Trucks this year with model year 2024 trucks. Several dealerships have reported problems, including a limited supply of diesel trucks due to manufacturers having to meet a percentage requirement for zero-emission trucks despite a lack of demand.

In the letter to truck manufacturers, the governors point out that Advanced Clean Trucks does not place any purchasing requirements on dealers or fleets. Despite that, “engine manufacturers are placing blanket purchase requirements onto dealers rather than utilizing the flexibilities built into” the regulation.

Those flexibilities include:

• Banking/trading credits
• Allowance for 50% of compliance to come through credits from sales of plug-in hybrids
• Use of non-tractor credits for tractor compliance for those with very few Class 7-8 tractor sales

One issue is that many manufacturers are not building hybrid versions of larger trucks. Class 7-8 tractors, for example, are either all-electric or diesel. The last flexibility dealing with few tractor sales applies to manufacturers that accrue 25 or fewer deficits. That is the equivalent of 10 tractors.

In October, the California Air Resources Board approved more flexibilities in the Golden State as part of the Clean Truck Partnership. That deal aligns CARB’s nitrogen oxide emission regulations with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s 2027 regulations. It also provides manufacturers with no less than four years of lead time and at least three years of regulatory stability before imposing new requirements. In exchange, truck manufacturers will commit to meeting CARB’s emission requirements regardless of any attempts by other entities to challenge California’s authority.

In May 2022, the Truck and Engine Manufacturers Association filed a federal lawsuit against CARB over its new nitrogen oxide emission regulation. The lawsuit argued the new rule did not provide manufacturers the minimum lead time of four full model years. Just three months later, the association dropped the lawsuit.

When proposing amendments to Advanced Clean Trucks rules consistent with the Clean Truck Partnership, CARB cited a lack of electric truck sales as reason to offer more flexibility.

“Under the regulation, truck manufacturers must sell an increasing number of electric trucks in order to sell their combustion versions,” CARB stated. “However, due to slower-than-anticipated EV truck purchases, particularly for Class 7 and 8 tractors, combustion truck sales have dropped by up to 50% in 2024.”

But the Clean Truck Partnership applies only to California. Governors of the other states that have adopted Advanced Clean Trucks are encouraging a similar agreement in their respective states.

A total of 11 states have adopted Advanced Clean Trucks rules. Four states will start the rule next year: Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Washington. Oregon and Vermont will begin the regulation in 2026, with the remaining states implementing it in 2027.

Resistance to Advanced Clean Trucks

The letter comes as stakeholders attempt to delay the implementation of Advanced Clean Trucks in states poised to start the rule next year.

In New York, the Trucking Association of New York is urging state lawmakers to pause its version of the regulation until at least model year 2027. The Empire State is set to apply Advanced Clean Trucks to model year 2025 trucks next year.

“(The association) fully supports the adoption and the use of zero-emission vehicles, including the use of electric where it makes sense,” Trucking Association of New York President Kendra Hems said. “However, this policy places a mandate on our truck dealers in New York to try and sell vehicles to an industry that currently has very limited applications for their use, making it impossible to meet the goals of the regulation. It’s not that they don’t want to comply. They simply can’t comply.”

Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo, D-Binghamton, said she plans to bring the topic up when the state legislative session convenes in January.

Across state lines, New Jersey stakeholders and lawmakers are trying to delay their state’s Advanced Clean Trucks rule, which also is set to start next year.

Introduced in October, AB4967 and SB3817 would require the state to implement the rule no earlier than January 2027.

The New Jersey Business and Industry Association supports the bills.

“If this bill does not become law, or if alterations are not made to the Advanced Clean Truck rule as currently written, it will needlessly cost hundreds of millions of dollars for the trucking industry, it will decimate the logistics industry, including our ports, and those costs will be passed on to consumers,” the association’s Deputy Chief Government Affairs Officer Ray Canto said in a statement.

Meanwhile in Washington state, the Washington Trucking Association is urging the state government to pull the plug on the adoption of California’s Advanced Clean Trucks rule, which will go into effect next year.

Advanced Clean Trucks rules are being challenged in federal court. In June 2023, 19 states filed a lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. Several stakeholders have jumped in since the lawsuit was filed, including the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, Chamber of Commerce, American Trucking Associations, Truckload Carriers Association, National Tank Truck Carriers and Specialty Equipment Market Association. LL