Utah joins other states suing California over diesel truck rule

Kyle Dunphey
Utah News Dispatch 

Utah is one of 16 states suing California over a rule aimed at curbing air pollution that, according to a complaint signed by Attorney General Sean Reyes, “violates the Constitution and threatens our nation’s economic security.”

Filed in U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of California, Nebraska v. Cliff takes issue with a new Golden State rule that seeks to prioritize zero-emission vehicles in the trucking industry.

Called Advanced Clean Fleets, the rule was finalized in October and targets any fleet operating in California. In some instances, private “high priority” fleets with 50 or more trucks will be required to buy zero-emissions vehicles when replacing older trucks. Other fleets will have to ensure a certain percentage of vehicles are zero-emission. For state and local government fleets, all new vehicles purchased must be zero-emission by 2027.

By the 2040s, California hopes to have all fleets in the state be mostly zero-emission vehicles, according to a news release.

The rule is also intended to incentivize more commercial zero-emission vehicles being brought to market.

But Reyes, alongside 16 Republican attorneys general and the GOP-controlled Arizona Legislature, argues the rule will force companies from other states to comply with California’s law.

“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,” reads the complaint filed in May.

“It is a misconceived and nationwide policy executed without the blessing of Congress or the consent of elected leaders in affected States,” the attorneys general claim.

Essentially, California is exporting its ban on certain internal combustion engines, the complaint states.

Utah is joined by Nebraska, Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Oklahoma, South Carolina, West Virginia and Wyoming. The Arizona State Legislature and the Nebraska Trucking Association are also named as plaintiffs.

This story originally appeared on Utah News Dispatch and is republished under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.