Will Declining Truck Inventories Lead CARB to Amend Heavy-Duty Electric Truck Regulations?

In 2023, California Governor Gavin Newsom proudly declared an “clean air” policy which has the potential to put the state’s drivers in harms way:

“California became the first jurisdiction in the world today to end the sales of traditional combustion trucks by 2036, creating a path to 100% zero emission medium heavy-duty trucks on the roads in California by 2045. California also became the first state in the nation to implement emissions standards for trains,” Newsom said.

“The future happens here first, and California is once again showing the world what real climate action looks like.”

Newsom’s “Advanced Clean Trucks” regulations, as with passenger vehicles, call for phasing out gas and diesel engines and replacing them with plug-in electric and hydrogen-electric vehicles.

“However, truck manufacturers have not developed electric alternatives to meet a towing or recovery truck’s range, demanding performance and safety standards,” said Keep California Motorists Safe, a coalition of small businesses, truck drivers, and motorists.

Specifically, tow trucks aren’t there yet – not even close. And there are other issues to address.

“Since the heavy-duty electric truck regulations were enacted this year, the importation of medium—to heavy truck combustion engine chassis to California has declined dramatically,” said Keep California Motorists Safe. “The ACT and Heavy-Duty Omnibus (Omnibus) regulations cut off the supply of combustion engine trucks before truck manufacturers produced electric alternatives that meet a tow truck’s range, performance, and safety standards.”

They go into more detail:

California towing and recovery truck body manufacturers purchase truck chassis (truck cab and frame) from major American truck manufacturers, and then the towing or recovery truck’s body is attached to the chassis. While electric trucks are not new, truck manufacturers have not developed those alternatives to meet a towing and recovery truck’s travel range and demanding performance and safety standards.

The current electric truck chassis does not have sufficient space and rail strength for the heavy body, hydraulic equipment, and massive batteries that would be necessary. The batteries cannot sustain the truck during long patrols, which is problematic for rural areas of the state, nor can they operate the hydraulics over long periods as required during major accident and recovery duties. Having to recall a towing or recovery truck for recharging during an emergency recovery effort could come with life-threatening consequences.

However, next week the benevolent California Air Resources Board will consider amendments to the Advanced Clean Trucks (ACT) regulation.

In 2023, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) approved what the Newsom Administration characterized as a “nation-leading regulation” to phase out the sales of medium—and heavy-duty combustion engines, which took effect in January 2024. The regulation began a national movement to transition America’s trucking industry to Zero-Emission Vehicles (ZEVs) by 2035.

A small bipartisan group of legislators sent a letter to California Air Resources Board Chairwoman Liane Randolph requesting consideration for the needed amendments:

“Without appropriate actions by CARB, the small businesses in California and their employees will soon suffer layoffs and potential closures. In addition to the impact to families and economic activity, without access to new vehicles, tow and recovery companies will be forced to purchase higher emission, used vehicles from out-of-state, undermining the State’s air quality goals. Further, tow and recovery vehicles are part of the essential roadway safety network clearing over
1,200 road accidents and 2,400 mechanical breakdowns daily.”

It is notable that CARB maintained an exemption for government owned tow and recovery vehicles from these and other regulations “to ensure access to specialized classes of vehicles for roadway safety and emergency response,” the lawmakers say in their letter.

Signed by Assemblywoman Blanca Rubio, Senator Roger Niello, Assemblywoman Diane Papan, Assemblywoman Avelino Valencia, Senator Anna Caballero, Assemblyman Freddie Rodriguez, and Assemblyman Carlos Villapudua, it’s near the end of the letter where the crux of the problem is made clear:

Additionally, pre-2024 legacy diesel engines sold new in California pay a $9,000+ mitigation fee to offset impacts of emissions on environmental justice communities. The funding from the tow and recovery industry, at just 1% of total truck sales, could exceed $10 million per year to continue to fund these projects. However, with the current regulations forcing used trucks to be brought into California, emissions are increased without the benefits of the mitigation fee to
support our environmental justice communities. So not only do the current rules disadvantage California based jobs and companies, but the rules also rob our most vulnerable communities of important funding to address ongoing health effects.

If you still are unsure of the harm to businesses of all sizes California “clean air” regulations cause, this upfront fee/tax makes it clear: pre-2024 legacy diesel engines sold new in California pay a $9,000+ mitigation fee to offset impacts of emissions on environmental justice communities (low-income communities and communities of color according to CalEPA).

Just for the privilege of doing business in California, truckers and tow truck drivers pay $9,000 of the purchase price to the state to “mitigate” emissions.

New autos and trucks already are clean air vehicles by way of the newest vehicle technology. But California is making them pay anyway.

Passed in 2021, the California Air Resources Board announced “plans to accelerate the first wave of zero-emission trucks.”

And the CARB lies again claiming “fossil fuels that power them are the largest contributors to the formation of ozone, greenhouse gas emissions, fine particulate matter (PM2.5), and toxic diesel particulate matter.”

The Globe reported in 2023, “The California Air Resources Board (CARB) announced that the sale of all new diesel big rig trucks and buses will be banned in the state starting in 2036, coming in a year after a similar new gas-powered car bar was previously voted on.”

“In addition to the 2036 sales ban on new diesel trucks and buses, CARB, also announced that all trucks in California are to be zero-emissions by 2042. Under these new regulations, also known as the Advanced Clean Fleets rule, CARB hopes to achieve a total zero-emissions truck and bus fleet by 2045, as well as have at least 1.6 million zero-emission medium- and heavy-duty trucks operating in the state by 2048.”

We asked why California’s Air Board is using flawed PM2.5 deaths research, much of which has been conducted by Chinese investigators, to ban diesel trucks in the state? California has record low pollution levels. And CARB admits trucks represent only 6% of the vehicles on California’s roads. Other than further destroying the trucking industry and the businesses of independent owner/operators…

The science behind these regulations is not only dubious, it is from China, which has a strong motive to see that the United States succumbs to the climate change movement, much of which is funded by China, as Real Clear Energy reported: “For China, climate change offers a strategic opportunity. Decarbonizing the rest of the world makes China’s economy stronger – it weakens its rivals’ economies, reduces the cost of energy for its hydrocarbon-hungry economy, and sinks energy-poor India as a potential Indo-Pacific rival.”

It’s good that a group of bipartisan lawmakers sent the letter to CARB, but there is so much more to the story – including the back story of China’s involvement.

Dr. James Enstrom contacted the CARB Board and Research Screening Committee Members about their decision because he published “overwhelming epidemiologic evidence that there is NO relationship between PM2.5 and mortality or life expectancy in California. In addition, there is very strong evidence that the current average personal exposure to air pollution in California is below the level of known adverse health effects.” (Read his entire letter here)

It’s hard to take the EPA and the CARB board seriously when they insist their goals are the protection of the most vulnerable in society when the EPA conducted diesel exhaust experiments on children at UCLA and USC, I wrote in 2015. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency paid the University of Southern California and the University of California, Los Angeles to conduct experiments on children, to determine whether exposure to diesel exhaust harms humans.