California has overstepped its legal authority in enacting a new thicket of unnavigable rules requiring the rapid replacement of internal combustion powered semis and other commercial trucks with so-called “zero emissions vehicles,” which will "wreak havoc" on the U.S. economy, according to a new lawsuit filed by the California Trucking Association.
The lawsuit asks the court to block the CARB from enforcing its so-called Advanced Clean Fleets regulations, claiming the ACF illegally “expands California’s regulatory authority well beyond its borders and establishes … untenable mandates.”
The lawsuit asserts the ACF is preempted by federal law under the U.S. Constitution, as the regulation runs afoul of the federal Clean Air Act and other federal laws under which the nation’s trucking and logistics industries are regulated as essential interstate commerce and so protected from meddling by individual state governments.
“CARB’s efforts are in service of the laudable goal of decreasing tailpipe emissions from commercial vehicles, but represent a vast overreach that threatens the security and predictability of the nation’s goods movement industry,” the California Trucking Association wrote in its filing.
CARB unveiled the ACF in August, shortly after the environmental agency announced a deal with the country’s leading truck manufacturers, under which the agency agreed to give the truckmakers more lead time to adapt and more flexibility in enforcing compliance with the ACF emission standards. In exchange, truckmakers agreed not to seek to challenge the rules in court, and to continue working toward meeting the goals of a 100% “zero emissions” fleet of semis and other commercial trucks by 2045.
Others, however, have sued to challenge the rules, seeking to end them before California can use its economic heft and status as the more populous U.S. state to make them the effective law of the land.
While other lawsuits remain pending, the California Trucking Association has joined the convoy of legal challengers with its new lawsuit.
The lawsuit indicates the Association believes the rules would be a nightmare for trucking companies and owner operators to navigate. According to the complaint, even a single trip by a truck into California to pick up a load could subject out of state logistics operators to the onerous regulations.
The complaint asserts the regulations could also create a nightmare for the economy of California and the U.S., by extension, as nearly 40% of all imports pass through the massive logistics centers situated around the coastal ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, worth as much as $311 billion per year.
According to the complaint, CARB recognizes not only the logistical problems associated with complying with its new regulations, but also the threat posed to the new rules by federal preemption.
The California Trucking Association notes CARB has gone to great pains to weave a web of exceptions and waivers, all designed to appear to meet the standards needed to comply with federal law or to allow the state to obtain another special California-only waiver from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and its rules and protections for the economy under the Clean Air Act.
“ACF is a Gordian know, riddled with convoluted and unpredictable exceptions designed to avoid CARB’s obligation to demonstrate its regulation is feasible,” the truckers wrote in their complaint.
And the trucking association noted CARB has issued statements designed to mollify truckers by indicated the state agency “may not” initiate enforcement actions “against an out of state fleet,” for now.
“But this exercise of discretion could be retracted as easily as it was given,” the truckers said.
“Congress has long understood the need for certainty and consistency in establishing emissions standards for vehicles supplying the lifeblood of the economy,” the trucking association wrote. “On this point, Congress has spoken clearly and categorically preempted state and local emissions standards unless the particular requirements for a California waiver have been met.
“Even where those standards are met, nothing in the (Clean Air Act) can be plainly read to have authorized the transformative shift from fossil fuel-powered vehicles to (zero emissions vehicles) mandated by ACF. Steaming ahead with ACF in the absence of a waiver and in absence of clear Congressional authority has thus ‘undo[ne] Congress's carefully calibrated regulatory scheme.’"
The California Trucking Association has asked the court to declare CARB’s ACF rules violate truck operators’ due process rights under the U.S. Constitution and the Constitution’s protections for interstate commerce. Further they asked the court to declare the ACF rules are preempted by the Clean Air Act and other federal law. They have asked for an injunction barring CARB from enforcing the ACF rules.
The California Trucking Association is represented in the case by attorneys Marne S. Sussman, Brian C. Bunger and Emily M. Lieban, of the firm of Holland and Knight, of San Francisco.