Congress cancels CARB waivers

Congress on May 22 voted to eliminate the EPA waivers for California’s Advanced Clean Trucks and Heavy-Duty Omnibus regulations.

The votes are a major development in the federal government’s work to overturn heavy-duty emissions regulations set by the California Air Resources Board.

Congress used the Congressional Review Act to revoke the waivers that allow states to enforce the ACT and Omnibus regulations. Outside California, 10 other states adopted ACT, CARB’s heavy-duty electric vehicle mandate, and nine states adopted Omnibus, CARB’s latest stringent heavy-duty emissions standards.

“Both mandates are untethered from reality and would have been extraordinarily costly to fully implement,” the American Trucking Associations said, celebrating the votes. “Even states that adopted the standards are acknowledging reality by scaling back and delaying implementation.”

The Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) “rejoiced” in the vote, citing a “monumental, years-long effort” to educate voters and lawmakers on the importance of “preserving vehicle choice” in the U.S.

“We thank those in the nation’s community of automotive enthusiasts and the aftermarket businesses who engaged in the advocacy process, many for the first time, to remind lawmakers that this is the United States of America, not the United States of California,” SEMA President and CEO Mike Spagnola said.

Calstart, an industry organization focused on decarbonizing transportation, blasted the move in a news release, calling the overturned regulations “foundational tools for accelerating clean vehicle innovation.”

“In a massive handout to special interests, the Senate today took a radical action that creates enormous policy uncertainty for the entire transportation industry,” John Boesel, Calstart president and CEO, said. “This move concedes the industries of the future to global competitors, will increase air pollution, accelerate global warming, and result in significant job loss.”

Once President Donald Trump signs the two resolutions, they will nullify CARB’s waivers and prohibit EPA from issuing similar waivers in the future. There is one catch, however: Once the resolutions pass the president, they will face challenging lawsuits that could take several months to resolve.

For more coverage from the trucking and fleet perspective, see the stories from EBM's Commercial Vehicle Group titles FleetOwner and Fleet Maintenance.