The government will require heavy trucks and buses to include automatic emergency braking equipment within five years, the federal traffic safety agency said Thursday, estimating it will prevent nearly 20,000 crashes save at least 155 lives a year. (File photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)
California air regulators and major engine manufacturers announced a deal Thursday to lock in place the state’s tough emissions standards for trucks, including rules that prohibit the sale of new diesel big-rigs by 2036.
Experts said the deal was a way for California to protect its clean air rules from roll backs by a future Trump White House or an adverse ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court, while giving the industry a consistent target for its assembly lines to meet in an era when presidential elections and federal court cases can cause major, costly swings in environmental regulations.
“It’s an insurance policy for the California Air Resources Board,” said Robert Percival, a law professor and director of the environmental law program at the University of Maryland. “And it lets the truck manufacturers know what the regulations are going to be so they have the certainty to plan.”
Under the deal, California officials approved several changes to make it easier for the trucking industry to comply. The industry agreed not to sue, and to move forward with California’s standards even if they are overturned in the future.
“This agreement makes it clear that we have shared goals to tackle pollution and climate change and to ensure the success of the truck owners and operators who provide critical services to California’s economy,” said Liane Randolph, chair of California Air Resources Board.
The board, a powerful agency established by former Gov. Ronald Reagan in 1967 that is often known as CARB, signed the deal with the the Truck and Engine Manufacturer’s Association, and some of the nation’s largest truck engine makers, including Cummins, Volvo, Ford, Navistar and General Motors.
“We appreciate CARB’s commitment to providing flexibilities as we transition to zero emissions,” said Shelley Knust, vice president of product compliance and regulatory affairs for Cummins.
In recent years, the air board has passed increasingly stringent rules on trucks to reduce smog and greenhouse gases.
Roughly 1.8 million trucks in California — everything from 18-wheel big rigs to delivery vans, garbage trucks and so-called drayage trucks that move shipping containers at ports — are affected.
Those trucks represent only 7% of the vehicles on California’s roads. But they emit 80% of the diesel soot and 70% of nitrogen oxides, a key component of smog, from vehicles. Diesel exhaust also contains more than 40 carcinogens, exposing people who live near freeways and ports to higher risks of asthma, heart disease and other ailments.
In April, the air board approved first-in-the-nation rules to ban the sale of new diesel big-rig trucks statewide by 2036, the latest step in the slow but steady phase-out of fossil fuels in California.
The rules followed a similar landmark requirement last year, supported by Gov. Gavin Newsom, to prohibit the sale of any new gasoline-burning automobiles in California by 2035. The European Union, China, Japan, Canada, Israel and other countries have adopted similar auto rules as a way to combat climate change.
California’s April trucking rules also require companies in the state with more than 50 trucks to convert their truck fleets to zero-emission vehicles by 2042.
At least 8 other states have copied California’s tough truck emission rules, accounting for about 25% of the national market: New York, New Jersey, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Massachusetts, Vermont and Rhode Island.
Under Thursday’s deal, California will slightly relax one emission rule — by adopting a federal standard for nitrogen oxide pollution from truck engines instead of a state standard. And it agreed not to impose new truck emission rules without giving at least 4 years advance notice.
Environmental groups said they need to study the details more, but generally support the agreement.
They cited an attempt by the Trump administration in 2019 to revoke California’s ability to set its own air pollution standards from vehicles. Since the 1970s, when California had choking smog levels in Los Angeles and other cities, Congress has given California the authority to impose tougher emissions rules from vehicles than federal standards, as long as it receives permission, known as “a waiver,” from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Other states often copy California’s rules, making California a major national player in the way cars and trucks are built.
Over the past 50 years, Republican and Democratic administrations have granted dozens of EPA waivers to California. But Trump’s EPA administrator, Andrew Wheeler, a former coal industry lobbyist, opposed the move, saying “federalism does not mean that one state can dictate standards for the nation.”
When President Biden was elected in 2020, he appointed a new EPA chief, Michael Regan, a former vice president for the Environmental Defense Fund. Regan has resumed granting California waivers.
Environmental and public health groups are worried now about three things: If Trump or another Republican wins the White House in 2024, they might try to revoke California’s authority again. Second, the oil industry and more than a dozen conservative states have filed a lawsuit, Ohio v. EPA, that is now pending in federal court, seeking to block California’s authority to set greenhouse gas standards from vehicles. That case could end up in the U.S. Supreme Court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority and has rolled back other environmental rules recently. And third, new lawsuits from the trucking industry also could weaken or stall California’s truck pollution rules.
“This is big news. We are happy about it,” said Mariela Ruacho, clean air advocacy manager at the American Lung Association in California. “We don’t know what is going to happen in the future. It’s important to have a commitment to zero-emission trucks.”
Originally published at Paul Rogers