The trucking industry at large breathed a sigh of relief to hear that CARB withdrew its federal application to implement the Advanced Clean Fleets (ACF) Regulation on January 13, 2025. The outgoing Biden Administration answered the following day that they considered the matter closed, indicating a desire to leave little opportunity for the next administration to take up action on the matter. This month I look into the reasons for the ACF withdrawal, explain why WSTA continues to fight for justice, and summarize several key programs yet to be affected by the change in Washington DC.
Why did CARB blink? CARB approved the ACF in April 2023 and submitted the required application to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in November 2023. The federal Clean Air Act allows California to apply for a “waiver” of federal requirements in order for California to enforce emissions standards more stringent than federal law. According to former CARB Chair Mary Nichols the CARB decision to withdrawal the ACF application was influenced by legal authority concerns and an incoming Trump Administration that is hostile to CARB’s actions.
Portions of ACF remain: The CARB withdrawal does not mean that ACF is dead and buried, however, as it stands as an official California state regulation until further notice and the “State and Local Government” portion of the Regulation will be enforced according to CARB. At a minimum, this means that WSTA members as residents and ratepayers will face rate hikes for electricity, water and sanitation services. All public agencies in the state, regardless of size, must procure only zero emissions vehicles in 2027 and beyond. Due to the known high upfront costs and dwindling state budget funding to fund incentives one can reasonably predict that increased rates will be needed. As an example, one Central Valley city estimated a $20 million price tag to convert its refuse collection fleet to ZEVs and the City has no solid funding plan to deal with CARB’s ACF mandate.
A second consideration is the likely effect on public works contracting. Many WSTA members derive revenue from public works projects ranging from pothole repair, local road and sewer projects to major critical infrastructure projects. When ACF affected agencies (who are currently left twisting in the wind by a broke Sacramento) must redirect it limited capital resources to ZEVs one can predict that public works projects will be delayed, downsized or dropped. Finally, there are reporting deadlines and requirements for drayage, “high priority,” and federal fleets for which the enforceability must be resolved. As of this writing, CARB has not revealed is next moves or whether it will try to replace ACF with some other regulatory scheme in the near future. Some observers suggest that CARB may time another ACF in anticipation of a more friendly post-Trump in 2028 or beyond. Due to the remaining uncertainty in how these portions of ACF will affect WSTA members, there have been no compelling reasons to drop the active litigation against CARB at this point.
Summary of WSTA Litigation: Western States Trucking Association vs. Steven Cliff (CARB Executive Officer) was filed on July 21, 2023 in Fresno County Superior Court.
The suit requests a temporary and permanent injunction that would halt the implementation of the Advanced Clean Fleets (ACF). The causes of action relate to 1) inadequate CEQA analysis; 2) improper cost analysis; 3) lack of scientific review; 4) procedural violations by removing documents from the public record; and 5) a post-Regulation notice that affects how WSTA members could be roped into buying electric trucks even if they are below 50 trucks or $50 million in gross receipts annually. CARB retracted its notice in October 2024, but the remaining four issues remain. There have been extensive negotiations to resolve these issues outside of Court however this has not been successful to protect WSTA’s interests.
Four separate federal actions have been filed in Washington DC during 2023-2024. These relate to EPA waivers that allow CARB to enforce electric truck manufacturing mandates (“ACT”), Emissions Warranty and Airport Shuttle Bus operator requirements to buy only ZEVs, federal Tailpipe Standards and Greenhouse Gas vehicle standards. These actions have been slowly moving through the federal court system.
Summary of Endangerment Finding: In 2009 the EPA determined that greenhouse gases endanger human health and welfare. In response to President Trump’s executive orders on his first day, on February 26, 2025, “[t]hree people granted anonymity to discuss the action said EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has recommended to the White House that the agency overhaul the finding, which underpins all Clean Air Act climate regulations.” Should the Trump Administration remove or modify the finding there could be additional legal authority problems with EPA waivers already granted or future EPA waivers sought by CARB.
Key CARB regulations remain: Neither the Omnibus Low N0x, Advanced Clean Trucks (ACT) nor the Clean Truck Check (CTC) are impacted by the recent CARB ACF withdrawal. Omnibus and ACT are playing out negatively for small to large truck purchasers. Most truck dealers are told by their OEMs that they must sell ZEVs in order to sell diesel or natural gas trucks. So, the customer is told that in order to buy a new CARB-certified engine for use in California that they must buy a ZEV for each three to ten internal combustion engines they buy, or they cannot do the transaction. Unless or until the OEMs rework their “Clean Truck Partnership” agreement on Omnibus and ACT with CARB this situation is expected to continue. Work arounds such as purchasing trucks outside of California then importing later may be uncertain as well. On the CTC front, CARB’s “VIS” database continues to be a challenge with paying the new annual emissions fee of $31.18 per truck and then implementing the confusing twice per year testing schedule for 2025 and 2026. Expect four times per year testing in 2027.
Why we fight: CARB’s ACF withdrawal, while a welcome delay, does not resolve WSTA’s concerns about CARB. There is nothing to say that CARB will not simply wait a year or two and time a new ACF to coincide with the January 2029 exit of Donald Trump. Legal challenges to CARB’s zero emission vehicle mandates are moving closer to the courtroom. Since the COVID-era push to outlaw internal combustion of petroleum fuels, WSTA has participated in the federal and state legal proceedings in which CARB passed several zero emission mandates and the prior EPA rubber stamped them. WSTA should view the legal challenges as the opportunity to cut the head off the snake that has been biting you for decades by restricting CARB’s state and federal authority in a lasting way through victory in the courtroom.
WSTA has joined a coalition of like-minded associations and companies in petitioning the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals for judicial review of the CARB Omnibus Regulation approval given by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Our filing follows EPA’s action in December by the outgoing Administrator to allow CARB to enforce the tighter truck engine emissions standards from 2024 onwards. The Petitioners are asking the Court to find EPA’s decision unlawful and remove the EPA approval, rendering the Omnibus Regulation invalid.
WSTA Sues Over Low NOx Waiver
CARB’s Regulation was adopted in 2020 and established a reduction of oxides of nitrogen (N0x) by over 80% between the 2024 and 2027 engine model years. The most recent estimates of the cost impact that I have heard is that new engines this year will cost between $10,000 and $25,0000 each. Many engine manufacturers have removed popular engine models from the available line up and there are caps on the amount of CARB-certified and those that are not CARB-certified. To further complicate matters, the sales of internal combustion engines in trucks >8,500 lbs. GVWR is also tied to the number of zero emission trucks sold. In light of the low customer demand and the withdrawal of the CARB Advanced Clean Fleets (ACF) the sales of new internal combustion trucks have plummeted due to CARB’s regulatory house of cards. More stringent engine standards are not working to bring new engines into California due to CARB’s failure to fix foreseeable problems that WSTA and other warned them about.
The timeline to hear the petition is not clear at this time. The Petition was also filed on behalf of the California Asphalt Pavement Association, California Fuels and Convenience Alliance, Associated General Contractors of New York, the New York Construction Materials Association and HR Ewell Inc, a privately held trucking company in Pennsylvania. Stay tuned to WTN as this story unfolds.
Questions may be addressed to Sean@CleanFleets.net or (916) 718-7050.
Lawsuit brought by four top truck makers against the CARB and Gavin Newsom, filed 8/11/25
/in Governmental Affairs and Communications, LegalHere you can read the full complaint and exhibits A and B from the lawsuit brought by four top truck makers against the CARB and Gavin Newsom.
Read TPPF’s Letter to the EPA Re: Proposed Greenhouse Gas Vehicle Rule Rescission
/in Governmental Affairs and CommunicationsRead the 17-Org Industry Letter to the Engine Manufacturers Association – 8/4/2025
/in Regulations & CARBSeventeen businesses, environmental advocates and public health organizations on Monday sent a letter to North America’s truck and engine manufacturers urging them to remain committed to the Clean Truck Partnership (CTP) agreed to in 2023… There is, however, debate over the validity of the agreement now that the Advanced Clean Trucks and CARB’s Omnibus regulations have been revoked by Congress. The Western States Trucking Association in June filed a petition with California’s Office of Administrative Law (OAL) challenging the CTP.
The Trump Train Proceeds on a Collision Course with CARB
/in Blogs, Regulations & CARBThe Republican majority in Congress and the return of Trump has CARB and its allies continuing to backpedal while simultaneously deploying teams of lawyers to defend a ZEV mandate on the trucking industry. The week before Trump’s inauguration, truckers breathed a big sigh of relief to hear that CARB withdrew its federal application to implement […]
WSTA Online Store
/in Association NewsDespite CARB ACF Withdrawal Multiple Emissions Lawsuits and Challenges Continue
/in Blogs, Regulations & CARBThe trucking industry at large breathed a sigh of relief to hear that CARB withdrew its federal application to implement the Advanced Clean Fleets (ACF) Regulation on January 13, 2025. The outgoing Biden Administration answered the following day that they considered the matter closed, indicating a desire to leave little opportunity for the next administration to take up action on the matter. This month I look into the reasons for the ACF withdrawal, explain why WSTA continues to fight for justice, and summarize several key programs yet to be affected by the change in Washington DC.
Why did CARB blink? CARB approved the ACF in April 2023 and submitted the required application to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in November 2023. The federal Clean Air Act allows California to apply for a “waiver” of federal requirements in order for California to enforce emissions standards more stringent than federal law. According to former CARB Chair Mary Nichols the CARB decision to withdrawal the ACF application was influenced by legal authority concerns and an incoming Trump Administration that is hostile to CARB’s actions.
Portions of ACF remain: The CARB withdrawal does not mean that ACF is dead and buried, however, as it stands as an official California state regulation until further notice and the “State and Local Government” portion of the Regulation will be enforced according to CARB. At a minimum, this means that WSTA members as residents and ratepayers will face rate hikes for electricity, water and sanitation services. All public agencies in the state, regardless of size, must procure only zero emissions vehicles in 2027 and beyond. Due to the known high upfront costs and dwindling state budget funding to fund incentives one can reasonably predict that increased rates will be needed. As an example, one Central Valley city estimated a $20 million price tag to convert its refuse collection fleet to ZEVs and the City has no solid funding plan to deal with CARB’s ACF mandate.
A second consideration is the likely effect on public works contracting. Many WSTA members derive revenue from public works projects ranging from pothole repair, local road and sewer projects to major critical infrastructure projects. When ACF affected agencies (who are currently left twisting in the wind by a broke Sacramento) must redirect it limited capital resources to ZEVs one can predict that public works projects will be delayed, downsized or dropped. Finally, there are reporting deadlines and requirements for drayage, “high priority,” and federal fleets for which the enforceability must be resolved. As of this writing, CARB has not revealed is next moves or whether it will try to replace ACF with some other regulatory scheme in the near future. Some observers suggest that CARB may time another ACF in anticipation of a more friendly post-Trump in 2028 or beyond. Due to the remaining uncertainty in how these portions of ACF will affect WSTA members, there have been no compelling reasons to drop the active litigation against CARB at this point.
Summary of WSTA Litigation: Western States Trucking Association vs. Steven Cliff (CARB Executive Officer) was filed on July 21, 2023 in Fresno County Superior Court.
The suit requests a temporary and permanent injunction that would halt the implementation of the Advanced Clean Fleets (ACF). The causes of action relate to 1) inadequate CEQA analysis; 2) improper cost analysis; 3) lack of scientific review; 4) procedural violations by removing documents from the public record; and 5) a post-Regulation notice that affects how WSTA members could be roped into buying electric trucks even if they are below 50 trucks or $50 million in gross receipts annually. CARB retracted its notice in October 2024, but the remaining four issues remain. There have been extensive negotiations to resolve these issues outside of Court however this has not been successful to protect WSTA’s interests.
Four separate federal actions have been filed in Washington DC during 2023-2024. These relate to EPA waivers that allow CARB to enforce electric truck manufacturing mandates (“ACT”), Emissions Warranty and Airport Shuttle Bus operator requirements to buy only ZEVs, federal Tailpipe Standards and Greenhouse Gas vehicle standards. These actions have been slowly moving through the federal court system.
Summary of Endangerment Finding: In 2009 the EPA determined that greenhouse gases endanger human health and welfare. In response to President Trump’s executive orders on his first day, on February 26, 2025, “[t]hree people granted anonymity to discuss the action said EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has recommended to the White House that the agency overhaul the finding, which underpins all Clean Air Act climate regulations.” Should the Trump Administration remove or modify the finding there could be additional legal authority problems with EPA waivers already granted or future EPA waivers sought by CARB.
Key CARB regulations remain: Neither the Omnibus Low N0x, Advanced Clean Trucks (ACT) nor the Clean Truck Check (CTC) are impacted by the recent CARB ACF withdrawal. Omnibus and ACT are playing out negatively for small to large truck purchasers. Most truck dealers are told by their OEMs that they must sell ZEVs in order to sell diesel or natural gas trucks. So, the customer is told that in order to buy a new CARB-certified engine for use in California that they must buy a ZEV for each three to ten internal combustion engines they buy, or they cannot do the transaction. Unless or until the OEMs rework their “Clean Truck Partnership” agreement on Omnibus and ACT with CARB this situation is expected to continue. Work arounds such as purchasing trucks outside of California then importing later may be uncertain as well. On the CTC front, CARB’s “VIS” database continues to be a challenge with paying the new annual emissions fee of $31.18 per truck and then implementing the confusing twice per year testing schedule for 2025 and 2026. Expect four times per year testing in 2027.
Why we fight: CARB’s ACF withdrawal, while a welcome delay, does not resolve WSTA’s concerns about CARB. There is nothing to say that CARB will not simply wait a year or two and time a new ACF to coincide with the January 2029 exit of Donald Trump. Legal challenges to CARB’s zero emission vehicle mandates are moving closer to the courtroom. Since the COVID-era push to outlaw internal combustion of petroleum fuels, WSTA has participated in the federal and state legal proceedings in which CARB passed several zero emission mandates and the prior EPA rubber stamped them. WSTA should view the legal challenges as the opportunity to cut the head off the snake that has been biting you for decades by restricting CARB’s state and federal authority in a lasting way through victory in the courtroom.
WSTA has joined a coalition of like-minded associations and companies in petitioning the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals for judicial review of the CARB Omnibus Regulation approval given by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Our filing follows EPA’s action in December by the outgoing Administrator to allow CARB to enforce the tighter truck engine emissions standards from 2024 onwards. The Petitioners are asking the Court to find EPA’s decision unlawful and remove the EPA approval, rendering the Omnibus Regulation invalid.
WSTA Sues Over Low NOx Waiver
CARB’s Regulation was adopted in 2020 and established a reduction of oxides of nitrogen (N0x) by over 80% between the 2024 and 2027 engine model years. The most recent estimates of the cost impact that I have heard is that new engines this year will cost between $10,000 and $25,0000 each. Many engine manufacturers have removed popular engine models from the available line up and there are caps on the amount of CARB-certified and those that are not CARB-certified. To further complicate matters, the sales of internal combustion engines in trucks >8,500 lbs. GVWR is also tied to the number of zero emission trucks sold. In light of the low customer demand and the withdrawal of the CARB Advanced Clean Fleets (ACF) the sales of new internal combustion trucks have plummeted due to CARB’s regulatory house of cards. More stringent engine standards are not working to bring new engines into California due to CARB’s failure to fix foreseeable problems that WSTA and other warned them about.
The timeline to hear the petition is not clear at this time. The Petition was also filed on behalf of the California Asphalt Pavement Association, California Fuels and Convenience Alliance, Associated General Contractors of New York, the New York Construction Materials Association and HR Ewell Inc, a privately held trucking company in Pennsylvania. Stay tuned to WTN as this story unfolds.
Questions may be addressed to Sean@CleanFleets.net or (916) 718-7050.
Zero-emission truck deployment behind targets, Calstart finds
/in General NewsNew Partnership Program for Members
/in General NewsWSTA has recently partnered with Regulis to help members save 10+ hours per week and thousands per year by automating compliance and safety and all the related tasks – things like DQ files, state / federal filings, and maintenance schedules.
WSTA assists members directly with many regulatory requirements of being a motor carrier such as updating your DOT number, small-fleet CARB CTC registration and even the federal New Entrant Safety audits (and we don’t charge members a fee).
The one thing we do not assist with is what is often termed managing the “back office.” This includes all sorts of primarily paperwork tasks such as maintaining up-to-date driver qualifications files, maintenance records, and compliance with hours-of-service records. Much of the required paperwork retention is part of having proper safety management in-place.
Lately, we have seen an uptick in members failing their safety audits, oftentimes because they have not properly maintained the required records mandated by regulation. We have always provided members with many of the required template forms they must maintain. The failures we are seeing are happening primarily with small motor carriers, especially owner-operators. It may seem weird that a one-truck operator must keep an employment application on file for themselves, but it is required.
Backoffice tasks can be tedious because of the paperwork. Worse, is forgetting when you need to renew or update something. For instance, we often aid members whose motor carrier permit expired, mostly because the expiration date went unnoticed. A “teaser” system that could let you know things like expiration dates and even save log-in information for various websites you often go to (FMCSA, Clearinghouse, DIR, CARB, etc.) could assist you in avoiding the frustration that comes with missing those dates.
Our new partnership is with regulis.ai. There are numerous articles in the trucking media about larger entities using AI to improve their motor carrier operations. For many smaller motor carriers, it can be difficult to see a “value proposition” in that technology. Regulis uses AI as part of its platform and allows the user to ask any sorts of compliance questions to get the answer. For instance, what is CARB’s Clean Truck Check (CTC)?
A cool feature of the platform is the ability to take a picture of a driver’s license to upload for DQ files and their system will automatically populate the driver centric information on the required forms, no need for manual entry of data!
The platform is available in multiple languages.
All members taking advantage of this partnership will get a 20% discount on the cost of subscribing.
WSTA Secures Another Victory for Trucking
/in Front Page News, General News, LegalOPINION: Truck OEM’s Made a Deal with CARB They Likely Regret
/in General NewsIf you have attempted to purchase a new diesel powered truck in California (or even states that eagerly adopted CARBs ACT rule), you have probably run into a roadblock where the dealership cannot sell you the truck you want or need.
This is directly the result of a deal struck between CARB and the Truck and Engine Manufacturers Association, its members, and the Ford Motor Company. That deal is often referred to as the Clean Truck Partnership (CTP).
Truck dealers are complaining that they must meet zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) sales quotas in order to sell diesel powered trucks and since nobody wants a ZEV, the dealerships are limited in meeting customer demands for diesel equipped trucks even though their sales are still permitted, with a caveat.
Truck dealership have blamed the Advanced Clean Trucks regulation as the primary cause, but it isn’t that simple. It certainly is a factor, but a bigger factor is the agreement made by the OEM’s with CARB related to the Heavy-Duty Omnibus engine standard adopted by CARB in 2021 (and still awaiting an EPA waiver) further reducing emissions standards for NOx and PM. Currently, California and federal emissions standard are not harmonized and will be only marginally different by 2027.
Based on dealer and fleet owner complaints to CARB, they performed an analysis of the issue and issued a report on September 25, 2024.
Basically, CARB threw “cold water” on the dealership complaints and zeroed in on OEM sales mandates for dealerships to meet. CARB’s analysis stated, “Through discussions with manufacturers, dealers, and fleets, it appears numerous manufacturers have begun to inform their customers they will be applying future requirements to purchase ZEVs before they can acquire combustion vehicles to each of their dealer or upfitters regardless of the types of vehicles they sell as ZEVs. Some have expressed plans to begin implementing a rigid policy to require each dealer or upfitter to purchase a certain number of ZEVs from the manufacturer before they can get any internal combustion vehicles (ICE) whether or not the manufacturer offers ZEVs in the market segment the dealer specializes.”
CARB states as per their agreement with the OEM’s, they could be choosing to use legacy emissions credits to meet the demand for diesel engine sales, but they’re not doing that. CARB stated in its findings, “In summary, the manufacturers are well-situated to comply with the ACT regulation’s requirements for the 2024 MY and there are more than enough available ACT credits that manufacturers could purchase, if necessary, to sell dealers what is needed.”
So, we’re caught in somewhat of a “he said, she said” situation, but not exactly. OEM’s have made a decision to ride the pork barrel of available public funding to push ZEV’s to their customers regardless of whether they meet duty-cycle requirements or whether they can get the necessary charging in-place. In a nutshell, the OEM’s made an agreement with CARB and choose to ignore their customers as well as associations who are suing to derail the ZEV mandate. The OEM’s invested in producing ZEV vehicles and at the least they want their R&D money back, so they are trying to force feed their customers something they don’t want at this time and it is blowing up in their face. They are giving up sales on diesel trucks as part of a gambit to force ZEV’s on customers not suited to early ZEV adoption, nor required to adopt them.
CARB is not blameless either. Their rigidity is holding fast to the ACT will actually hurt air quality improvements due to truck owners basically being forced to keep older trucks or go purchase later model used trucks (mostly out-of-state). We saw this same dynamic play out with the Truck & Bus regulation. After full implementation of the rule, there were reports that air quality improvements were hampered by CARB shoving its nose into the normal trade cycle of truck owners. Many chose to keep their older equipment longer by adding a DPF.
The CARB report also stated that the European units of most of the OEM’s are charging $88,828 more for a comparable ZEV in the U.S. than they sell for in Europe. CARB noted that the pricing for ZEV’s has actually decreased in Europe while increasing in the U.S. At CARB’s October 24 hearing one Board member expressed that CARB is being “ripped off” by the OEM’s.
A lot of government money, both local, state, and federal (as part of the Inflation Reduction Act) is being thrown at forced ZEV adoption. Apparently, the pillars of industrial capitalism also understand crony capitalism quite well and as we see with any activity or behavior subsidized by the government, costs always increase.
States that blindly adopt CARB regulations (CAA section 177 states) are feeling the pain too. Recently Oregon, Massachusetts, and New Jersey are at least discussing delaying their implementation of the Omnibus (and perhaps ACT) and New York is under increasing pressure to follow suit.
OEM’s because of selling out the needs of their customers to the desires of the environmental left have cut themselves into a deal (with CARB) where their desired vehicles sales and ROI are going to make it tough on them financially. Remember, their deal also includes ignoring any and all legal setbacks, even a Supreme Court decision in our favor that CARB and EPA are exceeding their authority and agreeing to only sell ZEV’s in California.
Talk about whipping the finger to your customer base.