Dive Brief:
- American Trucking Associations President and CEO Chris Spear on Wednesday urged OEMs to ditch their Clean Truck Partnership with the California Air Resources Board, saying “the shifting political landscape creates an opportunity” to rechart zero-emissions timelines.
- Spear’s letter to Cummins, International Motors, Volvo Trucks North America, Daimler Truck North America and Paccar said the industry and a second Trump administration could “course correct the impossible timelines and stringency targets laid out by California and the Environmental Protection Agency.”
- “Abandon the CTP and work with us and the incoming Administration in Washington to reopen Greenhouse Gas Phase 3 and revise it with achievable, national standards that put our industry on a sustainable and successful path towards a zero-emissions vehicle future,” he wrote.
Dive Insight:
The ATA’s open letter put public pressure on manufacturers on behalf of some of their largest customers. Truck sales have cratered by half in California and California-certified diesel trucks have become expensive and hard to find, due to rationing to comply with zero-emission sales requirements, Spear said.
Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers’ lawsuit this week over the Clean Truck Partnership “allows manufacturers to abandon the CTP immediately and work in solidarity with the industry to deliver commonsense solutions,” Spear’s letter said.
Spokespeople for Daimler and Paccar declined to comment Thursday on the letter. Cummins, International (Navistar) and Volvo did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Spear sounded more bullish in his letter about the industry’s ability to slow the EPA’s Phase 3 rule than he did during a conversation with trucking trade press at the end of the ATA’s 2024 Management Conference & Exhibition in Nashville last month.
As president, Donald Trump would have authority to revoke federal waivers granted to California, which would reset the Advanced Clean Trucks and Advanced Clean Fleets programs, Spear said at the conference. But scrapping the EPA greenhouse gas rule would require research to justify doing so, which “won’t happen on day one.”
“As far as GHG3, no, it's too far along,” Spear said. “Congress can't use the Congressional Review Act to revoke it if they've had too many days of session for that to apply. So you'd have to do another rulemaking to reverse the rulemaking. Unlike independent contractor/DOL, GHG3 is a little bit more complicated than that.”
