Iowa’s Department of Justice announced on June 6 that Iowa’s Attorney General, Brenna Bird, would lead a coalition of 19 states to challenge the EPA decision to allow California to force truckers to buy electric trucks.
“The EPA and California have no right or legal justification to force truckers to follow their radical climate agenda,” said Attorney General Bird. “America would grind to a halt without truckers who deliver our food, clothes and other necessities. But rather than support our hard-working truckers, Biden continues to empty their wallets and force them to drive electric trucks for his radical climate change agenda. Iowa isn’t going to take a backseat as the EPA and California try to regulate truckers out of business. We’re pushing back.”
Iowa led the lawsuit, joined by Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Ohio, South Carolina, Utah, and West Virginia.
Earlier this year, California announced their plan to transition diesel trucks to electric semi-trucks, which the EPA granted approval on the states aggressive plan.
“Iowa isn’t going to take a back seat as the EPA and California try to regulate truckers out of business. We’re pushing back,” Bird announced. “The EPA and California have no right or legal justification to force truckers to follow their radical climate agenda.”
The 51-page legal action against the EPA and Michael Regan was filed on June 5 in the U.S. Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia.
Regan said the EPA proudly reaffirmed “California’s long-standing authority” to lead efforts to combat truck and car pollution.
“Our partnership with states to confront the climate crisis has never been more important. With today’s action,” he said, “we reinstate an approach that for years has helped advance clean technologies and cut air pollution for people not just in California, but for the U.S. as a whole.”
The document outlines how only 2% of heavy trucks sold in the United States are electric, and the Biden Administration gave California the authority to convert heavy trucks to be electric by 2035.
According to Attorney General Bird, eight states have followed California in adopting this plan.
“America would grind to a halt without truckers who deliver our food, clothes and other necessities. But rather than support our hard-working truckers, Biden continues to empty their wallets and force them to drive electric trucks for his radical climate change agenda,” Bird said.
“Costs for electric trucks already start at about $100,000 and can reach the high six figures. And even worse — California’s new regulations are setting the standard for the rest of the country. That makes California a major decision-maker for the future of the national trucking industry,” she said.
EPA’s actions backing California’s diesel truck ban also “will not only increase costs, but it will devastate the demand for liquid fuels, such as biodiesel, and cut trucking jobs across the nation,” Bird predicted. “Iowa’s trucking industry currently provides almost 100,000 jobs — that is almost one in 13 jobs in the state.”
Electric is not the only form of energy a diesel vehicle can be converted to. Currently, biodiesel is becoming increasingly more popular and nearly all heavy-duty vehicles can run on some form of a biodiesel blend.
The attorney generals from the 19 states are arguing that the California Advanced Clean Truck regulation violates the Clean Air Act and other federal laws.
“Biden’s EPA is attempting to use the California truck ban to force his radical climate change agenda onto the rest of the country. This disastrous Biden policy would devastate Kansas industries, destroy Kansas jobs and dramatically increase the cost of consumer goods for Kansas families,” said state Attorney General Kris Kobach. “California’s truck ban is reckless, and that’s why I am once again challenging a Biden policy,” Kobach said June 7.
“There were more than 13 million trucks on U.S. roads in 2020, carrying the goods we all buy. Either we won’t be able to get the things we need, or the cost of those goods will be astronomical. This ban is another example of prioritizing the climate change agenda above everyday people,” South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson said June 8. “If you think prices have been bad during the Biden administration because of inflation, imagine how crippling they’ll be if this illegal truck ban is allowed to stand.”
