The RV Industry Association (RVIA) reported a federal judge in California issued a preliminary injunction at the end of October preventing the California Air Resources Board (CARB) from enforcing the Clean Truck Partnership (CTP) against heavy-duty truck manufacturers, including motorhome chassis manufacturers.
The CTP is an agreement signed by CARB and a group of manufacturers in 2023 that contained two key components:
First, CARB would ease certain regulations on heavy-duty trucks, particularly the Omnibus Low NOx rule that would have set a California standard on NOx emissions that was stricter than the federal requirement by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Second, the manufacturers agreed not to contest in court several California rules that were affecting heavy-duty vehicles, including the NOx rule and the Advanced Clean Truck (ACT) rule, which set various goals and requirements aimed at moving to zero-emission vehicle fleets of heavy-duty vehicles over the next decade or so.
However, Congress earlier this year, acting on a request from the EPA, revoked the Clean Air Act waivers that allowed the Advanced Clean Truck rule, NOx rule and the Clean Cars II regulation to take effect. California filed a lawsuit in June challenging the legality of the Congressional revocation.
In the decision to issue the preliminary injunction, the judge noted that CARB had said in August that while the future of the Advanced Clean Truck rule was making its way through the courts, manufacturers could receive permission to sell vehicles in California as long as they were in compliance with the less stringent federal rules. However, if they were not in compliance with the ultimate California rules, they could face retroactive penalties.
The plaintiffs in the case are Daimler Truck North America, International Motors, PACCAR Inc. and Volvo Group North America. The full request by the plaintiffs asked the court to block numerous other California regulations. One of them was the Advanced Clean Fleets rule, which has been largely withdrawn by CARB.
Similar to the suit by California against the waiver revocations, this action is likely to be appealed, again potentially to the Supreme Court.
