Street Smarts: CARB’s comeuppance

I’m sorry but I’m having a hard time mustering up much sympathy for the environmental regulators at the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). And I say that as someone who supports the global effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as much as possible and as soon as possible.

Jack Roberts is a Tuscaloosa, Ala.-based independent journalist and licensed commercial driver with more than 20 years’ experience covering the North American and global trucking industries.

It’s important to remember that many at CARB and EPA are certain that the threat of climate change is real. So, they’re not trying to cripple an industry; they’re trying to save the planet. As a result, they were dead set on forcing the trucking industry to transition away from diesel-powered vehicles to zero-emission powertrains.

The timeline was aggressive. Beginning in 2027 – less than two years from now – the Advanced Clean Fleets (ACF) Rule would begin replacing diesel trucks in CARB-compliant states with zero-emission trucks.

Truck dealers in those states would be required to sell set numbers of zero-emission trucks in order to qualify to sell reduced numbers of diesel-powered vehicles. That would last until 2036, when diesel trucks would be outlawed in all CARB states.

Then, in 2042, diesel-powered trucks would be outlawed nationwide.

Moreover, the trucking industry would be required to finance this massive technology transition – estimated to eventually cost around $1 trillion dollars – largely by itself.

Practical solutions ignored

This might be fine, I guess, if there were zero-emission trucks available today that perform as well as diesel-powered trucks do. But by and large, there aren’t.

The technology is improving all the time. But outside of a few urban and regional-haul applications, zero-emission vehicles simply cannot compete on a one-to-one basis in terms of affordability, range and productivity.

That’s to say nothing of the almost complete lack of both public and private infrastructure needed to fuel or recharge zero-emission vehicles, and the fact that green energy sources being used to provide those fuels are still in their infancy.

Maddeningly, CARB and EPA virtually ignored more practical and affordable clean fuel options. These are proven drop-in technologies such as renewable diesel fuel or renewable natural gas.

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Granted, these are not zero-emission fuels, but they’re a definite improvement over conventional diesel fuel. Their widespread adoption would create immediate, measurable reductions in emissions.

The use of those fuels would give OEMs more time to perfect zero-emission powertrains. It would also ease the eventual transition away from diesel to zero-emission trucks.

Combustion bias

While the technology is improving, zero-emission trucks are still largely limited to urban and regional haul applications. (Photo: Becky Schultz)

The trucking industry repeatedly met with CARB and EPA officials to voice its concerns about the ACF Rule. Industry representatives also offered more reasonable and immediate compromises – including increased adoption of natural gas-powered engines and a national renewable diesel fuel mandate.

I think it’s safe to say a majority of people in the trucking industry felt the ACF Rule was unworkable. It also ran a serious risk of creating supply chain disruptions and economic instability.

CARB and EPA officials were polite, one industry insider told me. “And they listened to everything we had to say. But they didn’t act on anything we suggested to them.”

More than one industry insider has told me there is a “combustion bias” at those agencies. To put it simply, these are people who believe internal combustion engines are inherently bad, and they want to remove them from our society forever.

Only themselves to blame

Then Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election.

Today, the ACF Rule is all but dead, and the Trump-era EPA is now looking into rolling back even older emissions regulations, such as mandatory low-DEF engine derates.

I’m not going to pretend that CARB and EPA regulations were ever going to be greeted with enthusiasm by the trucking industry. Each new emissions reduction regulation has increased both acquisition and maintenance costs for fleets.

Surely working with the trucking industry to draft more reasonable and affordable options would have worked better than the debacle they have on their hands now. And you’d probably have an already cleaner planet.

But environmental regulators refused to listen. Now, they have set back their work to save the planet by years – and they only have themselves to blame.

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