Diesel big rigs form the backbone of the U.S. commercial road transportation industry and their days are now numbered – at least in California.
On Friday state regulators banned the sale of new diesel big rigs by 2036 and also passed new rules requiring all trucks be zero-emission vehicles by 2042.
The announcement came on the same tame day CARB enacted regulations that will require “zero emissions” trains to be introduced after 2030, focusing on a sector often seen as a “green” alternative to cars and trucks, as Breitbart News reported.
UPI reports the Advanced Clean Fleets rule, which is the first in the world to require new commercial trucks, including garbage trucks, delivery trucks and other medium and heavy-duty vehicles, to be electric, was unanimously approved by the California Air Resources Board (CARB).
“This is an absolutely transformative rule to clean our air and mitigate climate change,” said Liane Randolph, chair of the board, according to the Mercury News.
Environmental groups praised the new rules for taking diesel heavy trucks off the road at the same time CARB works on a host of other measures to ban fossil fuel usage across a host of other areas.
The California Air Resources Board (CARB) voted unanimously last week to pass a plan to ban natural gas heaters and furnaces by 2030. https://t.co/X1A5eG9uR7
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“I don’t think there’s been a single rule where we haven’t heard the technology isn’t ready, the costs are too great, or that it’s not the right time,” Will Barrett, national senior director of air advocacy for the American Lung Association said.
“But the urgency of cleaning our air and confronting the climate crisis can’t wait.”
Industry groups criticized the decision, the UPI report ded.
“CARB has outright ignored the nation’s leading fleets and has put forth an overly ambitious, unrealistic, and unfeasible proposal,” said Eric Sauer, CEO of the California Trucking Association.
Sauer added the new rules “will guarantee a complete dismantling of our state’s trucking industry and have detrimental effect on goods movement and the entire supply chain.”
In an aerial view, trucks move along Interstate 80 on March 31, 2023 in Berkeley, California. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced it will allow California’s plan to phase out a variety of diesel-powered trucks in the state and require truck manufacturers to sell more zero-emission electric trucks. Half of all heavy trucks sales of heavy truck in California will have to be electric by 2035. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Last August, CARB finalized regulations that ban the sale of gas-powered cars in the state after 2035.
California also plans to require all-electric trucking fleets by 2042.
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