States File Suit Against Calif. Clean Fleet Rule

A multitude of states filed a lawsuit May 13 to halt California’s Advanced Clean Fleet (ACF) rule. 

Sixteen states, plus the Arizona State Legislature and the Nebraska Trucking Association, brought the case. It names Steven Cliff, executive officer of the California Air Resources Board, and Robert Bonta, the state’s attorney general, as defendants. 

The ACF rule requires certain fleets to phase in zero-emission vehicles, while also requiring manufacturers to only produce zero-emission vehicles starting in 2036. The rule was supposed to go into effect January 1 but is still pending due to California needing a waiver from the Environmental Protection Agency. 

“In a stunning gambit that both violates the Constitution and threatens our nation’s economic security, an agency of the state of California has attempted to override federal law and arrogate to itself the power to ban internal-combustion engines in medium- and heavy-duty vehicles,” reads the document. “This attempted ban contravenes controlling law while defying real-world reality and burdening American families and businesses, already suffering from high inflation, with even more costs.” 

The action was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California. The California Trucking Association has already sued to prevent the ACF from taking effect.