On Monday, the American Trucking Association (ATA) filed comments with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency deriding California’s Advanced Clean Fleets Rule as “ill-conceived” and “unattainable.”
According to information on the Federal Register, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) notified the EPA it had adopted the Advanced Clean Fleets (ACF) regulations earlier this year. Those regulations would apply to state and local government fleets, drayage truck fleets, federal agency fleets and large commercial fleets that own, lease or operate on-road medium- and heavy-duty vehicles, and light-duty package delivery vehicles, and require those vehicles to incorporate zero-emitting vehicles into the fleets beginning in 2024. The ACF regulations also require all new California-certified medium- and heavy-duty vehicle sales be zero-emitting vehicles starting in 2036.
In its public comments to the EPA, the ATA said the rule would disrupt the supply chain, calling the rule complex and capricious.
“ATA remains adamantly opposed to California’s ill-conceived, unattainable regulation,” ATA President & CEO Chris Spear said. “This destructive rule sets wildly unrealistic targets and timelines that are already creating confusion on the West Coast and threaten to cause severe disruptions to our supply chain nationwide.”
ATA said the regulations would create a different standard to comply with depending on whether a truck is operated in a fleet greater than 50 trucks, or fewer than 50 trucks, and whether the truck was operated in a fleet with an entity greater than $50 million in revenue, or less than $50 million in revenue.
In its current form, the organization said, the ACF rule is difficult to decipher and impossible to implement. Additionally, it said, the mandates set by the state directly conflict with the waiver requirements set by the Clean Air Act.
Lastly, the organization said, the zero-tailpipe emission standards for trucks cannot be implemented by fleets until the infrastructure necessary to support those vehicles is in place, including depot and public charging; substation and transmission line upgrades; and sufficient power to meet increased demand is in place.
“Under the Clean Air Act, EPA is obligated to consider California’s request in light of the available technology and the ability of fleets to comply with the regulatory requirements,” Spear said. “This evaluation will find that the requirements are unworkable, and the available technology and infrastructure fall woefully short of meeting California’s one-size-fits-all, zero-emission vehicle purchase mandate. Given the wide range of operations required of our industry to keep the economy running, a successful emission regulation must be technology neutral.”