June 7, 2023
Today, Utah Attorney General Sean D. Reyes joined a coalition of 19 states challenging the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to allow California to ban trucks illegally. That ban forces truckers to buy electric trucks and regulates trucking out of existence by mandating net-zero emissions standards.
The Biden Administration gave California the authority to force most buses, vans, trucks, and tractor-trailers to be electric by 2035. Currently, only 2% of heavy trucks sold in the United States are electric.
The ban on traditional trucks is part of the Biden Administration’s aggressive climate change agenda, which hikes prices for businesses and consumers. Costs for electric trucks already start at about $100,000 and can reach the high six figures. And even worse—California’s new regulations are setting the standard for the rest of the country. Eight other states have already adopted California’s truck ban, and more are considering it. That makes California a major decision-maker for the future of the national trucking industry. California’s truck ban will not only increase costs and devastate the demand for liquid fuels—such as biodiesel—but cut trucking jobs across the nation as well. The Utah trucking industry currently provides about 21,000 jobs in 2020.
California’s Advanced Clean Trucks regulation also violates the Clean Air Act and other federal laws.
Iowa led the lawsuit, joined by Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Ohio, South Carolina, and West Virginia.
Read the complete Petition for Review here.
