The trucking industry is split over California’s aggressive emissions goals, with manufacturers striking a deal not to sue the state in return for short-term concessions — leaving local trucking companies out in the cold.
Earlier this year, as Breitbart News reported, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) banned the sale of new fossil fuel-powered trucks by 2036 and said that all trucks on the state’s roads had to be zero-emission by 2042.
There was no plan in place to account for the massive disruption these rules could have on the local economy, especially as the standard went beyond the ambitious trucking emissions goals of the Biden administration.
But as CalMatters.org reports, truck manufacturers reached a deal with the state on Thursday:
Under the new agreement, California will bring its 2027 standards for smog-forming nitrogen oxides more in line with the federal version.
Truck and engine manufacturers also will be allowed to sell a higher percentage of older diesel technology that isn’t as clean burning between 2024 and 2027, provided they offset the emissions, such as by also offering up a comparable number of zero-emission engines. The air board also agreed to give manufacturers four-years warning before implementing new clean trucks rules.
In return, the truck manufacturers agreed not to sue over California’s clean-truck rules or weigh in on lawsuits brought by other parties, and said that they would follow the rules regardless of how other lawsuits were resolved. Trucking companies have sued the state, for instance, but under this new deal they won’t have the support of truck engine manufacturers, a powerful group that has sued the state before.
The deal leaves trucking companies alone to fight new standards that some say are a recipe for economic failure.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
