Diesel big rigs have long been the backbone of the commercial highway transportation business in the United States, but their days are limited, at least in California.
State officials enacted new rules mandating all trucks to be emission free vehicles by 2042, as well as a prohibition on the sales of all new diesel big rigs by the year 2036.
The news came on the same day that CARB adopted regulations requiring “emission free” trains to be implemented after 2030, focusing on an industry that is frequently viewed as a “green” alternative to trucks and automobiles, according to Breitbart News.
According to UPI, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) overwhelmingly passed the Advanced Clean Fleets regulation, which is the very first in the world to mandate new commercial trucks, which includes trash trucks, along with delivery trucks, as well as other medium and even heavy-duty vehicles, to be electric.
According to the Mercury News, board chair Liane Randolph declared that “the regulation will absolutely transformatively help to clean the air and slow down climate change.”
Environmental organizations applauded the new restrictions for removing diesel heavy trucks from the road, which come as CARB works on a slew of other measures to prohibit the use of fossil fuels in a variety of other sectors.
“I do not believe there has been one regulation where we have not heard that the technology is not ready, or the costs are too high, or it’s simply not the right time,” Will Barrett, the American Lung Association’s national top director of air advocacy, said.
“However, the pressing matter of cleansing our air and addressing the climate crisis cannot be postponed.”
According to the UPI article, industry organizations blasted the decision.
“CARB has completely disregarded the country’s leading fleets and proposed an excessively ambitious, unattainable, and unworkable proposal,” stated Eric Sauer, Head of the California Trucking Association.
The new laws, according to Sauer, “will ensure the complete demise of our state’s trucking sector and have a negative impact on the transportation of goods and the whole supply chain.”
The United States EPA indicated that it will support California’s proposal to phase out certain diesel-powered commercial vehicles in the state and mandate truck manufacturers to offer more emission free electric trucks. By 2035, half of all heavy vehicle purchases in California must be electric.
CARB adopted regulations in August that prohibit the sale of gas-powered vehicles in the state beyond 2035.
California also intends to make all-electric trucking fleets mandatory by 2042.
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