CHARLESTON — West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey has joined a coalition of 19 states challenging the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to allow California to ban trucks.
Morrisey and the other AGs describe the ban as illegal, saying it forces truckers to buy electric trucks and regulates trucking out of existence through mandating net zero emissions standards.
The petition was filed June 5 in the U.S. District Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia against the EPA and Administrator Michael Regan.
Morrisey
In April, California air regulators approved a ban of the sale of traditional combustion trucks – that run of diesel – by 2036 in the state. The initiative, also known as Advanced Clean Fleets, sends California on the path toward fully transitioning medium and heavy-duty trucks there to zero-emissions technology by 2045.
The AGs say the Biden administration gave California the authority to force most buses, vans, trucks, and tractor-trailers be electric by 2035. Currently, just 2% of heavy trucks sold in the United States are electric. They say the ban on traditional trucks is part of the Biden administration’s aggressive climate change agenda, which they say hikes prices for businesses and consumers.
The AGs note that costs for electric trucks already start at about $100,000 and can reach the high six figures. And even worse — California’s new regulations are setting the standard for the rest of the country. Eight other states have already adopted California’s truck ban, and more are considering it.
The AGs say that makes California a major decision-maker for the future of the national trucking industry.
“This ‘authority’ leaves California with a slice of its sovereign authority that Congress withdraws from every other state,” Morrisey said. “This woke climate agenda the Biden administration continues to shove into hardworking Americans’ throats will cause massive job losses, increase costs and devastate the demand for liquid fuels, such as biodiesel.”
The trucking industry supports 34,360 jobs in West Virginia. Trucks transported 61% of total manufactured tonnage or 65,448 tons per day, according to the West Virginia Trucking Association. More than 84% of communities in the state depend exclusively on trucks to move their goods.
California’s Advanced Clean Trucks regulation is in violation of the Clean Air Act and other federal laws, the coalition argued.
Morrisey joined the Iowa-led petition with Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Ohio, South Carolina and Utah.
U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia case number 23-1144