California Goes Beyond the Pale with Emission Regulations
Go big or go home, right?
We have written before about how the California Air Resources Board (CARB) announced plans to require half of new trucks to be fully electric when 2035 comes around, but recent changes make that ambitious benchmark appear tame in comparison.
Details
Now, CARB has voted unanimously in favor of stricter regulations.
By 2036, all medium-duty and heavy-duty trucks sold within California’s borders must be zero-emission vehicles. Furthermore, it will be illegal to operate a diesel truck in 2042. This means that if you plan to visit the Golden State any time soon, your recent and future purchases may just have an expiration date.
As you may probably expect, industry organization leaders who were already not happy with regulation plans in California are now even more upset. Chris Spear of the American Trucking Associations was particularly cross.
“Fleets are just beginning to understand what it takes to successfully operate these trucks, but what they have learned so far is they are significantly more expensive, charging and refueling infrastructure is nonexistent, and ZEVs are not necessarily a one-for-one replacement — meaning more trucks will be needed on California roads to move the same amount of freight,” he said in a statement. “California is setting unrealistic targets and unachievable timelines that will undoubtedly lead to higher prices for the goods and services delivered to the state and fewer options for consumers. As it becomes clear that California’s rhetoric is not being matched by technology, we hope the Board will reverse course and allow trucking companies the freedom to choose the clean technologies that work best for their operations.“
Conclusion
Chris Spear’s sentiments are very realistic. It is easy to write regulations requiring something by a set date, but having that actually happen is another goal altogether. If half of all truck sales being fully electric in 2035 was a pipe dream, then having every truck be zero-emission one year later may be the most ambitious government-led technological goal since the plan to land on the moon by 1970. We accomplished that goal on July 20th, 1969, but we will have to see if California will succeed in fully outlawing diesel truck usage by 2042.
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