Advanced Clean Fleets needs to go, GOP states tell EPA

As the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency decides whether to grant California a waiver for Advanced Clean Fleets, nearly half of states are encouraging the agency to pull the plug on the new emission rules.

In September, two dozen Republican state attorneys general submitted comments to the EPA regarding a pending California Air Resources Board waiver request. California needs the waiver before enforcing Advanced Clean Fleets rules it adopted last year.

Finalized last October, Advanced Clean Fleets requires manufacturers to sell only zero-tailpipe-emission trucks by 2036. Drayage fleets and trucking companies with 50 or more trucks or grossing at least $50 million in revenue must phase out all non-zero-emission trucks by 2035. Once CARB receives the EPA waiver, it can begin enforcing a rule prohibiting affected companies from adding non-compliant trucks to their fleets.

Arguments against Advanced Clean Fleets made in the states’ comments mirror those made in a lawsuit filed against California earlier this year. The states argue that due to California’s size, its new truck emission rules would effectively create a requirement for nationwide compliance. With the fifth-largest economy in the world, California’s policies could have far-reaching effects well beyond its borders.

“Our states oppose this unprecedented overreach. Our states’ economies depend on the logistics, farming and biofuels sectors, and Advanced Clean Fleets threatens all three (and more),” the coalition stated in its comments. “Our states are also connected to California via the interstate system. An electric truck mandate in California means more battery-electric trucks traveling in our states – a mandate our states did not ask for and do not support.”

The states argued that granting a waiver for Advanced Clean Fleets would be unconstitutional, as it would allow California to regulate motor vehicles in a manner in which no other state can.

Consequently, such a waiver violates the states’ equal sovereignty. The coalition also claimed California’s rules violate the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act of 1994 and the dormant Commerce Clause.

“California lacks the legal authority to export its electric truck mandate to the rest of the country,” Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers said in a statement. “Our comment calls on the Biden-Harris Administration to favor the rule of law over its radical climate agenda and block California’s ban on internal-combustion trucks. Electric trucks are inefficient and costly and will harm Nebraskans by increasing the costs of interstate transportation, raising prices for goods, reducing demand for biofuels and burdening the electric power grid.”

Advanced Clean Fleets rules were published last December and were set to go into effect in January. However, CARB has delayed enforcement until it receives the required EPA waiver. Although CARB cannot enforce the rule prohibiting trucking companies from adding non-zero-emission trucks to their fleets, the agency said it may do so retroactively. In other words, CARB could force a company to remove any internal combustion trucks acquired after January 2024. LL