The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) filed motions this week to intervene in two lawsuits against the California Air Resources Board (CARB) over the state’s enforcement of federally preempted emissions standards through the Clean Truck Partnership (CTP).
The news was first reported by TPS sister publication CCJ.
The action follows last week’s lawsuit by North America’s Class 8 truck OEMs against CARB that stated that, despite Congress overturning the California’s Advanced Clean Trucks and Omnibus low NOx emissions regulations, the state is using the agreement to continue enforcement of the regs.
The DOJ has already sent Cease & Desist letters to the OEMs to stop compliance with the CTP and the emissions regulations the state is attempting to enforce through the partnership.
But the OEM lawsuit is just one of two the DOJ is petitioning to intervene in. The other case the government is petitioning to intervene in was filed by the American Free Enterprise Chamber of Commerce against the Truck & Engine Manufacturers Association (EMA) and Steven S. Cliff, the executive officer of CARB.
In filing its motions, DOJ said the Clean Air Act preempts state regulation of vehicle emissions unless the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) grants California a preemption waiver. While the EPA under the Biden administration granted waivers for the two CARB regulations in question, those waivers were revoked earlier this year. “Yet, in an affront to the rule of law, CARB seeks to circumvent that prohibition by enforcing the preempted emissions standards through the Clean Truck Partnership,” DOJ stated in a press release.
[RELATED: Trucking groups petition EPA to delay NOx rule]
“Agreement, contract, partnership, mandate — whatever California wants to call it, this unlawful action attempts to undermine federal law,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Adam Gustafson of the DOJ’s Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD). “President Donald Trump and Congress have invalidated the Clean Air Act waivers that were the basis for California’s actions. CARB must respect the democratic process and stop enforcing unlawful standards.”
Craig Segall, former Deputy Executive Officer and Assistant Chief Counsel of the California Air Resources Board who helped author the Clean Truck Partnership, decried the government's decision to join the lawsuits.
“Trump said he’d lower prices — and now he’s raising them again,” Segall told CCJ. “This lawsuit will help lock drivers into paying for diesel for years to come, even though electric trucks will soon be cheaper overall. It’s pathetic that the big truck companies and Trump have teamed up against hard working folks in the trucking industry.”
