By Lisa Baertlein and David Shepardson
(Reuters) – California said on Tuesday it has withdrawn its request for a federal waiver to require commercial truckers to transition to zero-emissions vehicles, preempting an expected denial from the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump.
The withdrawal was among several pollution-fighting waiver requests filed with the Environmental Protection Agency that was dropped by the California Air Resources Board (CARB), according to documents posted on Tuesday.
“The withdrawal is an important step given the uncertainty presented by the incoming administration that previously attacked California’s programs to protect public health and the climate and has said will continue to oppose those programs,” CARB Chair Liane Randolph said in a statement.
California’s Advanced Clean Fleets rule aimed to set timelines for operators of trucks carrying everything from U.S. mail and UPS packages to 40-foot containers of goods and other cargo, to switch to zero-emissions vehicles such as those powered by electric batteries.
California for decades has driven the U.S. toward less-polluting vehicles. It is the only U.S. state with the power to request a waiver from the EPA to set its own, more stringent, vehicle emission regulations because it has struggled with some of the nation’s worst air quality.
Other states can adopt its rules and automakers sign on to avoid having to produce different vehicles for California, the country’s most populous state.
CARB’s decision to withdraw the EPA waiver request for its clean truck rule is certain to resonate beyond California.
Nearly a dozen other states, including New York, New Jersey and Washington, have adopted the more aggressive trucking standards. Beyond that, truck makers already are subject to a separate California rule requiring them to sell more zero-emission trucks.
The Specialty Equipment Market Association, representing more than 7,000 businesses nationwide in the automotive aftermarket industry, praised the announcement saying California’s plan would “have crippled interstate commerce by implementing harmful EV mandates on the trucking fleets.”
The California Trucking Association in 2023 legally challenged the truck regulation, which was slated to go into effect at the start of last year, and California put it on hold pending a waiver decision from the EPA.
Among other things, it would have required seaport semi-truck operators to have zero emissions by 2035, due to the heavy impact of diesel truck pollution on people living near cargo corridors. Longer distance sleeper cabs would have been required to have zero emissions by 2042.
CARB has also withdrawn its request for locomotive and refrigeration unit rules that it said would have sharply reduced emissions.
The California agency is now assessing how to continue improving air quality and reducing harmful pollutants that contribute to poor human health outcomes and worsen climate change, Randolph said.
The EPA last month approved California’s landmark plan to end the sale of gasoline-only vehicles by 2035.
The decision in the final weeks of President Joe Biden’s administration set up a fight over the future of California’s vehicle regulations. Trump has vowed to rescind approvals granted by the EPA to California to require more EVs and tighter vehicle emissions standards.
