FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 28, 2022
Contact: Daniel Barad, daniel.barad@sierraclub.org
California Air Resources Board Considers Strengthening Proposed Advanced Clean Fleets Regulation
Sacramento, CA - Yesterday, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) held its first of two hearings on the Advanced Clean Fleets (ACF) regulation, which will require owners of certain heavy-duty truck fleets to purchase minimum numbers of zero emission trucks. After hearing testimony from environmental, labor and business, and environmental justice groups, the Board directed staff to consider strengthening the rule by:
- Requiring 100% of new heavy-duty trucks sold in California to be zero emission by 2036, four years earlier than proposed
- Decreasing the size of the fleets covered by the rule from 50, as proposed, to 10
The ACF rule builds on the Advanced Clean Trucks rule, adopted in June 2020, which requires truck manufacturers to make a minimum number of zero emission trucks. These rules, coupled with proposals in the recently adopted 2022 State Implementation Plan strategy, seek to implement Governor Newsom’s executive order to transition 100% of medium- and heavy-duty trucks on the road to zero emission vehicles by 2045.
This hearing came after weeks of advocacy from Sierra Club California and other environmental, labor and business, and environmental justice groups. Sierra Club California delivered nearly 700 comments to CARB supporting the strengthening of the ACF rule.
Heavy-duty vehicles emit seven percent of the state’s greenhouse gas emissions and more than a quarter of its smog-forming NOx emissions. A strong ACF rule will go a long way in helping get polluting combustion trucks off California’s roads, slow the climate crisis and improve the state’s air quality.
Statement from Daniel Barad, Sierra Club California Associate Director:
“Millions of Californians living in frontline communities breathe in toxic air every day, and a strengthened Advanced Clean Fleets regulation would go a long way towards reducing emissions and improving the state’s air quality.
“CARB must show further leadership by improving the Advanced Clean Fleets regulation in line with community demands ahead of its approval early next year. The proposed ACF changes would result in massive additional greenhouse gas and smog-forming NOx emission reductions, and thousands of lives saved. CARB must strengthen the ACF rule, and vote to adopt it as early next year as possible.”
Sierra Club California is the legislative and regulatory arm of Sierra Club’s 13 local chapters in California, representing half a million members and supporters.