California surrenders in its fight to mandate electric heavy trucks By EPN Staff The California Air Resources Board (CARB) withdrew its request for a federal waiver this month that would have allowed the state to require all commercial truckers operating in California to transition to zero-emission vehicles. The “Advanced Clean Fleets” regulation would have phased in requirements for all trucks operating in California to be zero-emission by 2035. With the two largest and busiest container ports in the U.S. (Los Angeles and Long Beach), California’s rule could have forced major changes to the entire country’s supply chain. Why it matters California is the only state allowed to set more stringent vehicle emissions rules than those issued by the Environmental Protection Agency because the Golden State’s smog regulations predate the founding of the EPA. The impacts of California’s regulations have been felt across the country, as states have the option to adhere to the California standard rather than the EPA. Ten states had adopted the Advanced Clean Fleet requirements as their own, pending the EPA granting California a waiver. The regulation would have prohibited the purchase of new internal combustion engines for California fleets as of Jan. 1, 2025, and required most trucks in the state to be fully electric by 2035 – a change the state’s charging infrastructure was not prepared for. California only had 379 electric heavy duty trucks on the road as of 2023, according to the California Energy Commission. California utilities have not been able to meet demand load for heavy duty truck charging hubs. In 2024, the state’s largest power companies told the Public Utilities Commission that the necessary upgrades to facilitate truck charging would take years: A new circuit would take 684 days, a substation upgrade would take 1,021 days and a new substation would take 3,242 days (almost 9 years). Deeper context California’s proposal was touted by the American Lung Association as a way to save thousands of lives, but it also drew strong opposition, with the U.S. Chamber, American Trucking Associations, Truckload Carriers Association and other business and transportation groups pointing out its economic effects. In September, two dozen Republican state attorneys general filed their opposition to Advanced Clean Fleets in a letter to the EPA, arguing California’s size and significant port activity would make the new state regulation a default national requirement. “Our states’ economies depend on the logistics, farming and biofuels sectors, and Advanced Clean Fleets threatens all three (and more),” the letter stated. “Our states are also connected to California via the interstate system. An electric truck mandate in California means more battery-electric trucks traveling in our states – a mandate our states did not ask for and do not support.” Opponents of California’s plan celebrated the outcome. “With the end of this illegal scheme, common sense and free enterprise prevailed, and consumers and businesses were spared the crippling impact of an electric truck mandate,” said Gentry Collins, CEO of the American Free Enterprise Chamber of Commerce. More details Transitioning from an all-diesel fleet to all electric would have created significant costs for trucking companies and likely delayed the shipment of goods. The true cost of electric trucks is not established at this point because so few are on the road. In 2021, the Port of Oakland bought 10 semi-trucks for $5.1 million or $510,000 per truck. The average cost of a diesel semi is $150,000 to $200,000. Diesel trucks can travel up to 2,000 miles before having to refuel for 15 minutes. Electric semis can travel roughly 500 miles, and recharging can take 30 minutes or hours, depending on the charger speed. “We would need far more trucks to haul the same amount of freight, and each of those trucks would cost two to three times a comparable diesel truck,” American Trucking Associations Vice Chair Andrew Boyle told a U.S. Senate subcommittee in 2023. “…We deliver food, medicine, baby formula. Failure is not merely inconvenient; it’s catastrophic.”
