Summary
- Truckmakers caught in crossfire between US, California
- US ends antitrust probe into California clean truck plan
- California governor, regulator not available for comment
(Reuters) – Four major truckmakers, including Daimler and Volvo, sued California to block the state from enforcing strict emissions standards that U.S. President Donald Trump declared void in June.
Daimler, Volvo, Paccar and International Motors formerly Navistar, said they have been “caught in the crossfire” after Trump reversed waivers issued during the Biden administration that let California set its own standards.
In a complaint filed on Monday, the truckmakers said Trump’s rescinding U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approval of California’s plan to boost zero-emission heavy-duty truck sales and reduce nitrogen oxide emissions preempted the state’s enforcement.
They said this included enforcing the Clean Truck Partnership, a 2023 program giving the truckmaking industry flexibility to meet emissions requirements while advancing California’s goal of lowering emissions.
The truckmakers said the regulatory uncertainty has caused irreparable harm because they cannot plan production in advance without knowing which vehicles they will be permitted to sell.
Monday’s complaint names the California Air Resources Board and Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom as defendants, and was filed in the federal court in Sacramento, the state’s capital.
Newsom’s office and the board did not respond on Tuesday to requests for comment.
On Tuesday evening, the Federal Trade Commission ended an antitrust probe into the Clean Truck Partnership, and said Daimler, Volvo, Paccar and International Motors agreed to avoid future anticompetitive agreements with state regulators.
“CARB’s regulatory overreach posed a major threat to American trucking,” Taylor Hoogendoorn, deputy director of the FTC bureau of competition, said in a statement.
Trump, a Republican, is trying to curb California’s power under the federal Clean Air Act to set tighter pollution limits than federal law requires, and Newsom’s ability to promote electric vehicles as the governor fights climate change.
California has received more than 100 waivers under the Clean Air Act since 1970.
During his June signing of joint congressional resolutions, Trump also blocked California’s effort to end sales of gasoline-only vehicles by 2035.
The state is also suing to undo Trump’s actions.
The case is Daimler Truck North America LLC et al v. California Air Resources Board et al, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of California, No. 25-02255.
Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Rod Nickel and Richard Chang
Source: worldautoforum.com
