EPA Takes First Step to Block CARB Clean Trucks Rule
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The Environmental Protection Agency has taken a first step aimed at rescinding the Biden administration’s waivers granted for California’s Advanced Clean Trucks and Omnibus low nitrogen oxides rules.
In a Feb. 14 announcement, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, along with the newly created National Energy Dominance Council, said the agency will be asking Congress to review the waivers of the controversial regulations aimed at transitioning the trucking industry to electric trucks and lowering nitrogen oxides.
The Advanced Clean Trucks regulation is a manufacturers zero-emission vehicle sales requirement and a one-time reporting requirement for large entities and fleets.
The California Air Resources Board Omnibus regulation mandates a 75% reduction in NOx emissions and a 50% reduction in particulate matter from heavy-duty on-road engines for engine model years 2024-26 compared with existing EPA standards.
In the Oval Office today, alongside @POTUS, I announced that in accordance with the rule of law, I am doing what the Biden EPA refused to do and formally transmit California's vehicle emission waivers to Congress. Learn more ⬇️ https://t.co/vrDLuDzpgg pic.twitter.com/96hJMXQNuj — Lee Zeldin (@epaleezeldin) February 15, 2025
“The Biden administration failed to send rules on California’s waivers to Congress, preventing members of Congress from deciding on extremely consequential actions that have massive impacts and costs across the entire United States,” Zeldin said. “The Trump EPA is transparently correcting this wrong and rightly following the rule of law.”
Zeldin added, “The two waivers regarding trucks not only increased the cost of those vehicles but also increased the costs of goods and the cost of living for American families across the country.”
Last month, CARB voluntarily backed down on seeking a waiver of a related regulatory proposal, known as the Advanced Clean Fleets rule, that would have required trucking companies to gradually add zero-emission vehicles to their fleets. However, CARB left standing the Advanced Clean Trucks rule and Omnibus NOx rule.
Both proposals require EPA to grant CARB a waiver of federal rules to proceed.
Spear
“Thanks to the leadership of the Trump administration, Congress now has one more avenue available to reclaim the keys from Sacramento and restore common sense to our nation’s environmental policies,” American Trucking Associations President Chris Spear said. “This is not the United States of California. California should never be given the keys to set national policy and regulate America’s supply chain.”
California has long had the authority to set emissions standards that are stricter than federal rules. During President Donald Trump’s first term, his administration challenged that authority. But a federal court last year upheld California’s ability to set nation-leading vehicle emissions regulations.
Truckers have long been highly critical of the CARB regulations, expressing widespread concerns as far back as October 2022, when CARB held a public hearing that drew a large variety of industry commenters.
Environmental groups and residents of disadvantaged communities near the state’s ports also testified in large numbers, saying the rule would go a long way toward cleaning the state’s dirty air and mitigating some health concerns, such as asthma and cancer caused by diesel truck emissions.
“Our members are at the forefront of evaluating how to successfully deploy these zero-emissions technologies, which will be advanced by the ACF regulation,” Mike Tunnell, director of environmental affairs for ATA, told the CARB board. “Based on this experience, trucking fleets are unanimous in their belief that zero-emissions trucks are not capable of doing what the regulation requires, and the infrastructure cannot be established in the time frame given.”
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Tunnell added, “The consequences of this is that fleets will have to deploy trucks that cannot do the same job as their current trucks, or they will have to take delivery of trucks before the charging infrastructure is ready.”
“There’s a great amount of work to do to make this regulation possible,” Chris Shimoda, senior vice president of government affairs for the California Trucking Association, told the board at the hearing. “The rule calls for all trucks, including those with totally incompatible duty cycles, to transition to zero emissions.”
