EPA Moves to Block California’s Roadside Emissions Checks
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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is taking aim at another California emissions law specific to the trucking industry, the latest in a crusade the agency has launched against the state’s long-standing efforts to establish its own clean air policies.
This time EPA is targeting the California Air Resources Board’s Clean Truck Check law, also known as the Heavy-Duty Inspection and Maintenance Program. Launched in January 2023, the program deploys roadside emissions monitoring devices and screens the emissions output of vehicles operating on California roads, regardless of where the vehicles are registered. This applies to U.S.- and foreign-registered vehicles.
In October 2023, CARB followed up with Clean Truck Check reporting and annual compliance fee requirements, applicable to nearly all diesel and alternative fuel trucks operating in the state. The HD I/M program applies to vehicles with a gross vehicle weight rating over 14,000 pounds. Under the regulation, only CARB-approved credential testers .
The effort is part of California’s broader so-called State Implementation Plan for establishing in-state emissions limits. The plan requires EPA approval. Per CARB, Clean Truck Check is designed to “ensure heavy-duty vehicles operating in California are well-maintained and repaired rapidly when needed, and promote a level playing field for the businesses that operate them.” The effort combines roadside emissions monitoring, emissions testing procedures using onboard diagnostics data, emissions checks and data reporting at required intervals, as well as compliance verification requirements for freight contractors, seaports and railyards.
In an , EPA said it plans to partially disapprove and partially approve the plan but did not provide further detail. It did stress, however, that it views the state’s broader clean air efforts as running afoul of federal law.
Zeldin. (Samuel Corum/Bloomberg)
“California was not, and has never been, duly elected by the American people to run our great country,” said EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin in the news release. “The state’s power grab knows no bounds. EPA will not allow California to violate federal law, and we will not sit idly by while, in the name of climate change, they raise the cost of living on all Americans who rely on truck drivers and the products they deliver across the country.”
American Trucking Associations President Chris Spear applauded the move.
Spear
“This is not the United States of California,” he said in a statement provided to Transport Topics. “We appreciate Administrator Zeldin’s leadership to ensure California cannot dictate national policies that threaten our supply chain and the ability of America’s trucking industry to keep our nation’s goods moving.”
Specifically, EPA said it proposes to block California’s efforts on the grounds that the program violates the U.S. Constitution’s Commerce Clause and also violates Section 110 of the Clean Air Act. It says CARB under the HD I/M plan cannot regulate foreign-registered heavy trucks, such as those from Canada and Mexico. Zeldin said California’s efforts to apply the requirement to foreign vehicles “appears to ignore the fundamental principle that powers related to foreign affairs are solely vested by the federal government.”
The EPA plan is subject to a 30-day period for public comments after appearing in the Federal Register. EPA will evaluate all comments submitted before enacting a final decision on CARB’s proposal within its State Implementation Plan.
The effort is not unique to California; such plans are submitted by states as a collection of regulations and documents used by a state to implement and enforce the National Ambient Air Quality Standards or other Clean Air Act requirements.
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However, in this case EPA stressed that it will not allow California to “violate federal law in a manner that foists yet another attack on truck drivers and engine manufacturers who provide the food and products we need to survive. California’s approach appears to be part of a larger strategy to drive out affordable trucks and products based on an extreme climate ideology.”
The Trump administration broadly is working to dismantle California’s climate regulations.
On Aug. 15, the U.S. Department of Justice represented EPA and the U.S. government in filing two complaints in federal courts against CARB regarding California’s enforcement of preempted emissions standards through its Clean Truck Partnership with heavy-duty truck and engine manufacturers.
“These actions advance President Donald J. Trump’s commitment to end the electric vehicle mandate, level the regulatory playing field, and promote consumer choice in motor vehicles,” DOJ noted then.
In June, Trump signed into law congressional resolutions under the Congressional Review Act that invalidated Biden administration EPA’s preemption waivers for CARB’s heavy-duty truck regulations. Now lacking these waivers, California is prohibited under the Clean Air Act from attempting to enforce those regulations, DOJ contends.
“President Donald Trump and Congress that were the basis for California’s actions. CARB must respect the democratic process and stop enforcing unlawful standards,” said Adam Gustafson, acting assistant attorney general of the DOJ’s Environment and Natural Resources Division.
