California expected to accelerate deadline for zero-emissions trucks

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/california-expected-to-accelerate-deadline-for-zero-emissions-trucks

The California Air Resources Board has thrown open the door on comments to its proposed Advanced Clean Fleet (ACF) rule, which sees a phaseout of diesel-powered trucks in the state, even as CARB still does not have the waiver it needs to make it a reality.

That proposal includes an acceleration of the target for requiring zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) in the state’s trucking sector to 2036. That date had been 2040.

The comment portal is here. Comments can be submitted until April 7.

The move up to 2036 appears to be the most consequential change that CARB has introduced in its ACF rule. The ACF goes hand in hand with the state’s Clean Trucks rule, which lays out mandates for manufacturers. The ACF is directed at users. 

Under the switch to a 2036 deadline, the new rule says that starting with that model year, “all vehicles produced by manufacturers (subject to the rule) that are produced and delivered for sale to the ultimate purchaser in California must be ZEVs.” 

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Spear added that a truck in 1988 would have emissions equal to 60 trucks today.

What appears to be particularly concerning to the ATA and others in the trucking industry is that several other states have agreed to follow whatever California does. According to the Post story, New York, New Jersey, Oregon, Massachusetts, Washington and Vermont all have made that commitment.

There has long been concern among the nation’s vehicle manufacturers of what they have referred to as the “two-car” problem, in that tighter regulations in California mean that in order to meet those standards but not assume those costs in the rest of the country, they need to build what amounts to two cars, one for California and another for the rest of the 49 states. Vehicle manufacturers have at times agreed with California on tighter emission rules, such as the four-company group that reached a deal in 2019 on tighter auto emissions.

With California and seven other states committed to following the emission rules set in Sacramento, it means that the two-car problem becomes even more pronounced and raises the prospect that the California Clean Fleet rules effectively become national rules.