SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH – Attorney General Sean D. Reyes joined a challenge to the State of California’s Advanced Clean Fleets regulation in Nebraska v Cliff, which was filed in the U.S. District Court Eastern District of California. The complaint requests the Court to “declare that Advanced Clean Fleets is preempted by federal statutes, otherwise violates the U.S. Constitution, and is unenforceable.”
Advanced Clean Fleets originated from a 2000 Executive Order dictating to “accelerate … actions to mitigate and adapt to climate change” and to “accelerate the transition to a carbon neutral future.” California Governor Gavin Newsom directed the California Air Resources Board to create and execute regulations in line with the Executive Order designs. The rule, which was finalized on October 1, 2023, regulates truck manufacturers and truck fleet operators and owners, seeking to ban internal-combustion engines in those vehicles to minimize emissions.
In their complaint, the attorneys general argue that Advanced Clean Fleets is unlawful because it violates the Clean Air Act, the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act of 1994, and the U.S. Constitution’s dormant Commerce Clause. They also argue that this California rule “harms [their] States’ sovereign, quasi-sovereign, legislative, and proprietary interests.”
The coalition writes, “By leveraging California’s large population and access to international ports…, Advanced Clean Fleets exports its ‘in-state’ ban nationwide, creating harms which are certain to reach Plaintiffs’ States. The regulation forces truckers in and out of California to retire their internal combustion trucks if they want to come to California. This will inevitably disrupt the supply chain for all manner of goods, slow interstate transportation, raise prices on goods across the country, and impose costs on taxpayers and governments around the country.”
Joining Utah and Nebraska on the legal filing were the States of Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Oklahoma, South Carolina, West Virginia, Wyoming, and the Arizona State Legislature and the Nebraska Trucking Association.
