The Environmental Protection Agency has granted a waiver to California to implement the state’s “Omnibus” regulation that tightens rules for nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions from diesel engines.
The EPA also on Wednesday granted a waiver for the Advanced Clean Cars Rule II (ACC II), the second iteration of the state’s tighter emission standards governing automobiles. It is aimed at ceasing all sales of cars with internal combustion engines by 2035 and replacing them with zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs).
The original NOx standards under the Heavy-Duty Omnibus – the formal name of the rule – were more stringent than the federal standards that were formally rolled out in 2022. However, the California Air Resources Board and the Engine Manufacturers Association last year came to an agreement in which the state said it would align its standards on NOx emissions with the pending federal rules in exchange for the manufacturers choosing not to pursue various legal and regulatory fights over the rule.
The CARB rules would have required tighter standards by the 2024 model year. As a result of the deal with the engine manufacturers, that’s now pushed out to align with the federal rules that launch in 2027.
Summarizing the provisions of the Omnibus, CARB, in a prepared statement after the waiver was granted, said the rule will reduce NOx emissions by 90%, “overhaul engine testing procedures and further extend engine warranties.”
With the Omnibus waiver now granted, attention turns to related questions: Can an incoming Trump administration yank the Omnibus and ACC II waivers, as well as other waivers for more stringent standards granted to California over the years; would the process for removing those waivers withstand a court challenge; and is a decision on the pending waiver for the Advanced Clean Fleets rule going to be rushed before Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20 – and if so, would it be an empty gesture as it too faces possible reversal under a new administration?
The ACF is a package of standards and mandates designed to gradually remove ICE trucks from the state’s trucking fleet.
The prospect that the Omnibus waiver could be reversed was raised by the American Trucking Associations in its highly critical prepared statement released in the wake of the EPA’s action Wednesday.
“This ill-advised waiver will be short-lived,” ATA President and CEO Chris Spear said in the statement. “We look forward to the incoming administration and soon-to-be EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin reversing these misguided policies and restoring common sense to the nation’s environmental policy.”
Spear returned to a growing theme about California: that bifurcated federal and state standards and an uncertain regulatory future are causing shortages of new vehicles in the state.
“California’s mandates have already created significant truck shortages and price increases, needlessly limiting truck sales and purchases in California,” Spear said. “These policies are divorced from reality, disregard the operational needs of the trucking industry, and will have adverse consequences for consumers in the price they pay for everyday goods.”
The 2023 agreement between the Engine Manufacturers Association and CARB came in for attack from Spear last month, when he wrote a letter to the CEOs of several engine manufacturers, including Cummins (NYSE: CMI) and Paccar (NASDAQ: PCAR), asking them to abandon the deal.
The deal between the two sides is known as the Clean Truck Partnership. It was a target of an ongoing lawsuit filed by several parties last month, led by Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers, seeking to invalidate the agreement. The Hilgers suit was filed a day before the Spear letter.
“The shifting political landscape creates an opportunity for the industry to work with the incoming Trump Administration to course correct the impossible timelines and stringency targets laid out by California and the Environmental Protection Agency,” Spear wrote. “That begins with leveraging existing, near-zero technologies that are available today thanks to the innovations of your companies. It requires a joint agreement that, as an industry engaged in interstate commerce, we need uniform national standards free of conflicting state policy to achieve regulatory certainty and success.”
The letter touches on two repeated themes coming from opponents of many of California’s actions: that there are numerous technologies that could be made available to replace or improve diesel engines (such as natural gas) short of forcing a ZEV mandate; and the sheer size of California will effectively make the state’s standards the governing rules for the rest of the country, as OEMs seek to avoid the need to build trucks to both a California specification and a less stringent federal specification for the rest of the country.
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