Keeping you in the loop on the various regulatory goings on:
- The California Air Resources Board’s (CARB) Advanced Clean Fleet (ACF) rule is being challenged again in court. This time by the Work Truck Association and the Specialty Equipment Market Association. They are seeking immediate declaratory and injunctive relief to stop the implementation of the mandate on the grounds CARB has overstepped their authority.
- There are ten states (New York, New Jersey, New Mexico, Massachusetts, Washington, Oregon, Vermont, Colorado, Rhode Island and Maryland) that have adopted CARB’s heavy-duty truck mandates. Three of those states are rethinking that plan and looking to delay the implementation of those regulations, namely Oregon, Massachusetts and New York. These three states have begun to realize the impracticality and infeasibility of those mandates and their timeline for implementation. Hopefully, more will follow…including California.
- The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is being sued by a consortium of 25 states, the American Petroleum Institute (API), trucking interests and the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) for its Greenhouse Gas Phase 3 (GHS3) regulations. GHG3 sets a timeline for the transition to zero emission vehicles (ZEV) for heavy-duty trucks, with the first threshold being 25% of heavy-duty trucks must be ZEV by 2032. The group contends there is no law that permits the EPA to mandate electric vehicles and has implemented the mandate without congressional approval. They also used the Supreme Court ruling in favor of the State of West Virginia against the EPA citing the EPA does not have the authority to regulate power plant emissions.
- The EPA approved the South Coast Air Quality Management District’s (SCAQMD) ruling allowing the district to enforce and assess penalty charges for their Warehouse Actions and Investments to Reduce Emissions (WAIRE) program. The rule applies to all warehouses in the district 100,000sqft or more and will require the investment in zero emissions technologies or pay a fine. It also allows for private citizens to bring suits against the warehouse for non-compliance.
- The California legislature passed and Governor Newsom signed AB98 which puts limitations on the construction of new warehouses in the state as well as truck routes into these facilities. One of the stickiest-wickets of this regulation is requirement that loading docks and other truck activity should be at least 300 feet away from “sensitive receptors” but gives a broad definition to “sensitive receptor” and a very vague definition of what constitutes warehousing.
We will continue to keep you updated on these and other regulations.