The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association has asked an appeals court to review a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency waiver allowing California regulators to proceed with enforcement of the state’s strict greenhouse gas-emissions reduction rule for heavy-duty trucks based or doing business in California.
In its Oct. 3 petition for review by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, OOIDA said that 93% of active motor carriers operate 20 or fewer trucks, a segment of the goods-movement industry that has been hit particularly hard by the economic contraction over the past several years and are struggling to survive.
“Compliance with the GHG regulation imposes a significant financial burden on the large number of OOIDA’s members who are primarily engaged in interstate commerce, and who only drive into California on an intermittent and irregular basis,” OOIDA said.
The greenhouse-gas regulation is part a larger effort by the California Air Resources Board to reduce not only greenhouse-gas emissions but also emissions of nitrogen oxides and diesel particulates.
“CARB fails to take into account the effect its new rules will have on interstate motor-carrier operations to compromise fuel efficiency and to reduce driver compensation,” OOIDA said.
