Threatened With Legal Action, State Makes U-Turn on Electric Truck Mandates – The American Spectator | USA News and PoliticsThe American Spectator

Pressured by legal action from seventeen states that would have been impacted, California has agreed to not just drop enforcement of its electric truck mandate, but to repeal it entirely.

Following the governor’s 2020 executive order that banned the sales of new internal-combustion engine cars in 2035, the state Air Resources Board devised two years ago a “world-leading regulation to phase out the sales of medium and heavy-duty combustion trucks in California by 2036.”

But the rule would have reached far beyond California’s borders, says Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers, who leads the 17-state coalition that challenged the Advanced Clean Fleets rule.

Another, Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador, said, “California’s attempt to dictate trucking standards for the entire country was a blatant overreach that would have devastated industries far beyond its borders.”

Completion of the settlement will take time. But the judge’s order is clear: The state agrees that it “will not take any enforcement action,” and there are deadlines that it must meet.

No one should have been surprised that truckers aren’t interested in buying electric rigs. They are unreliable, can’t get the job done in cold conditions, and are no match for diesels when pulling heavy loads. E-trucks cost more than workhorse diesels, have shorter ranges, and can take up to 10 hours to guzzle a full charge. (RELATED: Trump’s Electric Vehicle Rollback Helps Consumers, Won’t Hurt Climate)

Given the policy’s impracticality and legal challenges, there was no reason to defend it against the states that told California, “We’ll see you in court.”

Maybe the settlement will help California learn how to mind its own business. The electric-truck mandate was not the first time Golden State legislators and regulators — and in at least one instance, voters — have interfered with interstate commerce.

California energy laws impact gasoline prices in other states, the Low Carbon Fuel Standard regulates both interstate and foreign trade that occurs wholly outside of California and a pair of recently passed bills “impermissibly compel thousands of businesses to make costly, burdensome, and politically fraught statements about ‘their operations, not just in California, but around the world,’” according to a court challenge. (RELATED: Research Debunks Newsom’s Price-Gouging Shtick)

None, though, are as sweeping nor as entrenched as the state’s federally granted waivers that allow it to regulate beyond the standards of the Clean Air Act. In the decades since the law was passed in 1967, California has received more than 100 waivers and authorizations that have permitted it to act alone and has now become a de facto national emissions policy. Seventeen states and Washington, D.C., “have opted in to standards for light-duty vehicles,” says law firm Holland & Knight, “and 10 have done so for heavy-duty vehicles.”

Only once, in 2008, has the federal government denied the waiver request. The future, however, is a bit murky. Late last month, the U.S. House passed a joint resolution, by a 246-164 margin that included support from 35 Democrats, which disapproves of the waiver California needed — and was granted during the Biden administration’s last days — for the state to continue its electric vehicle mandate. (RELATED: EV Slowdown: Limits of ‘Technology Forcing’)

One of those 35 Democrats is Rep. Lou Correa of Orange County, who said he didn’t like handing a win to President Donald Trump, but felt he needed to “listen to my neighbors and respect their choices to do what is best for their families and their circumstances.” For him, that included “protecting consumers’ rights to drive whatever vehicle makes sense for them and their pocketbooks.”

The House also passed two others resolutions that are aimed at California’s eco-waivers. None of them have been taken up by the Senate yet and it’s not clear what authority the resolutions would have if they were also approved in that chamber.

The same can’t be said about the E-truck settlement. It sharply changes the landscape and could be a model for future efforts to dilute California’s leverage regarding energy and environment policies in other states.

Kerry Jackson is the William Clement Fellow in California Reform at the Pacific Research Institute and co-author of The California Left Coast Survivor’s Guide.

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