California Reefer Rule Illegal, ATA Tells Court

California’s transport refrigeration unit rule illegally imposes a national requirement on all motor carriers that enter the state, attorneys for American Trucking Associations and the Truckload Carriers Association told a federal appeals court.

The trucking groups asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to review the Environmental Protection Agency’s approval of a waiver allowing the California Air Resources Board to begin enforcing the rule requiring emission-control retrofits on refrigerated trucks for engine model years 2001 and older beginning July 17.

The rule also applies to refrigerated trailers, shipping containers and rail cars.

The EPA decision “authorized a California emission standard that, for the first time in the history of the Clean Air Act, requires the permanent installation of California emissions controls on engines and vehicles from other states as a condition of entering California via the interstate highway system,” the May 11 legal brief said.