The California Air Resources Board (CARB) approved new rules last week that truckers say will negatively impact their operations.
CARB adopted the Heavy-Duty Engine and Vehicle Omnibus Regulations and Associated Amendments, also known as the Omnibus Regulations or Low-NOx Regulations, to reduce smog and prevent more than $35 billion in medical costs over the next three decades, according to media reports.
But the Truck and Engine Manufacturers Association (TEMA) has characterized the new regulations as cost-prohibitive, unfeasible, unenforceable and illegal.
“The requirements starting in 2024 fail to provide the statutorily required minimum lead time for manufacturers to develop the technologies,” said Jed Mandel, president of TEMA in a statement online. “Truck operators and freight shippers are likely to maintain old trucks longer and seek solutions outside the state. We fear that jobs, the economy and the environment all will be at risk as truckers buy vehicles out of state, dealers lose sales and the state loses jobs and tax revenue.”
Attorney Shawn McMillan told the Southern California Record that there could be a constitutional challenge based on the commerce clause.
“If the California regulation is so restrictive, that it has a serious adverse impact on interstate commerce, then a claim would be within the purview of the federal government,” he said. “For example, engines manufactured in Michigan that are legal everywhere else but can no longer be used in California is going to be a problem.”
The Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution authorizes Congress to regulate Commerce with foreign nations, among the several states and with Indian Tribes, according to the Constitution Center.
McMillan further noted that truckers leaving the state of California would cause expenses to increase.
“The bottom line is California consumers are going to pay that cost if legal challenges don’t succeed and I believe there will be a challenge in federal court,” he said. “If truckers have to buy super expensive trucks, that cost gets passed on and the cost for truckers will increase the cost of freight. Additional freight costs will lead to consumer prices rising.”
For example, instead of paying a dollar per pound mile, truckers will pay $2 per pound and manufacturers shipping the goods will then also pay double, according to McMillan.
TEMA issued a 342-page letter detailing the adverse impact the regulations will have on California’s economy. Their concerns include the timing of the new rules.
“The continuing COVID-19 pandemic and the related economic fallout are exacerbating the infeasibility and unreasonableness of the Omnibus Regulations, and warrant CARB’s thorough reassessment of the multiple elements and timing of those proposed regulations,” the letter stated.