Both the US Congress and US Senate voted to revoke the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) waivers allowing the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to continue to enact their low-NOx Omnibus regulation as well as their Advanced Clean Truck (ACT) regulation. The waivers were granted and the rules went into effect starting with model year 2024 trucks.
The Omnibus rule required new diesel engines to have more stringent reductions in greenhouse gas emissions than federal EPA standards. The ACT rule required truck manufacturers to sell an increasing percentage of zero emission trucks (ZEV) each year. The ACT represented the sell half of the equation while the ACF (Advanced Clean Fleets) rule represented the buy half. As a result of the ACF not receiving its waiver as well as facing numerous lawsuits, CARB is repealing the ACF in its entirety.
The approvals are seen as a huge win for the trucking industry and the supply chain as whole, with Chris Spear, President and CEO of the American Trucking Associations (ATA) stating, “California should never be given the keys to set policies that impact our interstate supply chains.”
President Trump is expected to sign both of these joint resolutions, and California is expected to sue.
Prior to the ACT going into effect, a coalition of truck and engine manufacturers, Clean Truck Partnership (CTP), negotiated with CARB. In exchange for a slightly longer timeline, CTP agreed it would abide by the ACT rules even if it was overturned in litigation. Now, here is the question…since the ACT was overturned due to an act of congress rather than litigation, is the CTP still obligated to abide by the regulation? Likely another court case to answer that question.