California Regulators Move to Roll Back Parts of Controversial Clean Truck Rule

California plans to erase parts of a rule created to clean up the state’s dirty air from truck pollution. The action comes in response to a lawsuit from the California Trucking Association and strong headwinds from the Trump administration.

The Advanced Clean Fleet rule, adopted in 2023, would have phased out diesel trucks used by large companies, state and local governments, as well as ports and railroad yards. It would have eliminated new gas-fueled truck sales by 2036 and mandated that large trucking fleets go electric or hydrogen-powered by 2042.

In response to the trade group’s lawsuit, the California Air Resources Board plans to propose repealing parts of the rule that applies to trucks serving ports, rail yards and large companies this year. California’s requirements that state and local governments increasingly move towards all-electric vehicles — and that all new truck sales be electric by 2036 — will remain, so long as the federal government approves that policy.

The state adopted the clean truck regulation during the Biden administration, but did not get the necessary green light from the EPA before the Trump Administration took office this year. State officials withdrew their request for federal approval in January, meaning the state was largely unable to enforce the truck rules.

CARB confirmed the legal updates to KQED and a spokeswoman wrote that the agency “remains committed to protecting public health using new and alternative approaches,” in an email.

“We’re pleased to have reached agreement with the Air Resources Board on this stipulation,” Eric Sauer, head of the California Trucking Association, wrote in an email.

Sam Wilson, who works on clean transportation at the Union of Concerned Scientists, called the move “disappointing,” but “more of an administrative action than anything else.”

“The repeal of Advanced Clean Fleets has nothing to do with the rule’s real-world viability, but rather the political climate we find ourselves in today,” Wilson said.

While the rule would have accelerated the state’s transition to clean vehicles, Wilson is “confident that commercial vehicle electrification will continue, although at a slower pace.” The state can use other incentives to spur electric truck adoption, like requiring warehouses to track pollution and reduce it through electric heavy-duty vehicles, he added.

The court order between CARB and the California Trucking Association noted that the state will not require that new truck sales must be electric by 2036 without the approval of the federal government.

Wilson viewed the mention of the 2036 goal positively — a sign CARB officials were not abandoning the idea.

Should the state officially remove the entire rule from California’s regulatory code, it would need to entirely rewrite a new version and relaunch a lengthy regulatory process to pursue similar actions in the future.

CARB is also resolving litigation from trade groups representing railroads, which would have limited idling times and retired older locomotives, among other things. The rule was aimed at reducing pollution from diesel-powered trains, but it also failed to receive EPA approval.

The majority of planet-warming emissions produced by the U.S. come from transportation, and the same is true for California.

California was the first state to regulate tailpipe emissions in the 1960s, as it struggled to bring harmful air pollution under control.

President Richard Nixon signed the Clean Air Act into law in 1970, giving the EPA the authority to regulate air pollution from cars. The law bars states from enacting their own regulations, except California, given its unique air pollution problems.

California’s standards must be at least as strict as federal law and are considered necessary “to meet compelling and extraordinary conditions.” While other states can’t set their own standards, they can adopt California’s.

The EPA has granted California waivers for decades, with only one of its requests being initially denied in 2008 by the George W. Bush administration, then later granted by the Obama administration.

Trump’s EPA first revoked California’s waiver for tailpipe emissions in his first term, but California sued in response. That lawsuit became moot when Biden took office and reinstated the waiver.

In the final months of the Biden administration, the EPA approved two of California’s waivers, a ban on the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035 and a regulation setting stricter emissions standards for heavy-duty trucks. However, the agency did not approve a handful of other waivers, including some applying to heavy-duty trucks and trains, before administrations changed.