EPA faces lawsuit from 19 states over California’s diesel big rig ban

This week, a coalition of nineteen states filed suit against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for allowing the state of California to pass regulations that will effectively ban diesel trucks in the coming years.

On June 6, Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird announced a lawsuit against the EPA, alleging that California’s move to require that most heavy duty semi trucks be zero-emission by 2035 is “illegal.”

Bird says that California’s diesel truck ban “forces truckers to buy electric trucks and regulates trucking out of existence through mandating net-zero emissions standards.”

Bird also argues that California’s diesel truck ban is setting a national standard that will harm the trucking industry, as eight other states have also now adopted California’s emission standards, “and more are considering it.”

The coalition asserts that California’s truck ban will increase costs, “devastate” the demand for fuels such as biodiesel, and result in the loss of trucking jobs nationwide.

The suit argues that California’s Advanced Clean Trucks regulation is in violation of the Clean Air Act and other federal laws.

“The EPA and California have no right or legal justification to force truckers to follow their radical climate agenda,” said Attorney General Bird. “America would grind to a halt without truckers who deliver our food, clothes and other necessities.  But rather than support our hard-working truckers, Biden continues to empty their wallets and force them to drive electric trucks for his radical climate change agenda. Iowa isn’t going to take a backseat as the EPA and California try to regulate truckers out of business. We’re pushing back.”

States joining Iowa in the lawsuit include  Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Ohio, South Carolina, Utah, and West Virginia.