This week, Attorneys General from two dozen states joined forces to oppose California regulations that would impose an electric truck mandate “that is sure to disrupt the Nation’s logistics and transportation industries.”
On September 16, Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers led a 24-state coalition of Attorney’s General asking the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to block what they describe as California’s overreach of authority in imposing increasingly stringent emissions standards on commercial vehicles.
The Attorneys General have asked the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to maintain a federal legal block on California’s Advanced Clean Fleets regulation that they say would amount to an electric truck mandate and an eventual ban on diesel-powered commercial vehicles.
California requested a waiver from the EPA that would allow it to set emissions standards because the Clean Air Act currently states that only the federal government has the authority to set those standards. The EPA is currently accepting comments on the waiver request.
“The States’ comment argues that granting a waiver would be unconstitutional because it would permit California to regulate motor vehicles in a way that none of the other States can. The comment also argues that nothing in federal law permits California or the EPA to ban internal-combustion vehicles altogether. Given California’s large population and access to ports for international trade, should the EPA allow Advanced Clean Fleets to be enforced, the regulation will have significant nationwide effects on the supply chain,” the coalition said in a news release.
“California lacks the legal authority to export its electric truck mandate to the rest of the country. 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,” said Attorney General Hilgers.
In addition to Nebraska, coalition members include Attorneys General from the following states: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
The California Air Resource Board’s Advanced Clean Fleets regulation “requires fleets that are well suited for electrification to reduce emissions through requirements to both phase-in the use of Zero-Emission Vehicles (ZEVs) for targeted fleets and requirements that manufacturers only manufacture ZEV trucks starting in the 2036 model year.”
