The California Air Resources Board (CARB) creates truck engine and emission standards more strict than the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) then enforces these standards on every truck serving or entering the state. Interstate truck fleets find it operationally impossible to have only a portion of their fleets compliant with California’s requirements, therefore, the CARB rules become the de facto national standards.

California’s legislature, as part of AB350, was considering mandating a 50% reduction in transportation related fuel usage by 2030.  The California Trucking Association (CTA) and other transportation pundits opposed this portion of the legislation and were successful in having it removed from the law…much to the governor’s displeasure.  The law still has the requirements to extract 50% of the state’s electricity from renewable sources and a 100% increase in the energy efficiency of building