Six states could transform the U.S. trucking industry
U.S. trucking industry is set to be transformed by a handful of states adopting zero-emission vehicle requirements.
Oregon, Washington, New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts followed California in approving the Advanced Clean Truck rule late last year, requiring a growing percentage of all mediumand heavy-duty trucks sold to be zero-emission starting in 2025. Manufacturers must increase their zero-emission truck sales in those states to between 30 and 50 percent by 2030, and 40 and 75 percent by 2035.
In the years to come, the new sales mandate will fill the country’s coastal highways and corridors with an expanding number of electric-powered large pickups, buses, garbage trucks and tractortrailers. Oregon also approved the Heavy-Duty Omnibus rule, which toughens tailpipe standards on sales of new trucks that still run on fossil fuels and makes them 90 percent cleaner.
The rules will require manufacturers to develop cleaner vehicles, in a way that could “significantly reduce or eliminate greenhouse gas emissions as well as conventional air pollutants like nitrogen oxides,” said Paul Miller, executive director of Northeast States for Coordinated Air Use Management, a nonprofit that supports air quality regulators. “Vehicle makers don’t make money on public goods like clean air, so it’s not part of their product development plans unless something is in place to require its inclusion.”
Though they are only a small fraction of the nation’s vehicle fleet, medium- and heavy-duty trucks account for more than 60 percent of tailpipe nitrogen oxide and particulate emissions, according to a 2021 report. Lowincome communities of color that live near trucking corridors and distribution centers are disproportionately affected by those harmful pollutants, which the new rules are expected to reduce.
Together, the six states adopting the rule account for 20 perThe cent of the nation’s trucking fleet, said Patricio Portillo, a transportation analyst at the Natural Resources Defense Council. Other states may follow soon: Maine has taken steps to adopt the ACT rule in 2022, while Colorado, Illinois, Connecticut and Vermont have signaled plans to weigh the new regulations as well. Even parts of the country that don’t have the rules in place could see a spillover effect as manufacturers start to comply. “It’s good for all states that we have some leaders taking on this translation,” Portillo said.
The rule adoptions follow a familiar cycle: As part of a special provision in the Clean Air Act, California is the only state in the nation that is allowed to create air quality rules that are more stringent than the federal government. But other states are allowed to reproduce those tougher rules, as many have with tailpipe standards for passenger vehicles.
The growing bandwagon of clean-truck states also marks progress toward a goal of making 100 percent of bus and truck sales electric by 2050, as pledged by 15 governors and the mayor of Washington, D.C., in a memorandum of understanding in 2020. It listed a number of actions that states could take, including purchasing incentives and infrastructure investments. But the new sales mandate could have the greatest impact of all, Miller said.
The industry doesn’t see it like that. Jed Mandel, the president of Truck and Engine Manufacturers Association, a lobbying group, said that his members are already making large investments in EVs. Rivian, Tesla and Daimler AG are developing tractor-trailers that can run hundreds of miles on a single battery charge. A handful of EV school buses are already on the road, while companies like UPS and Amazon have placed orders for hundreds of thousands of electric delivery trucks.
Mandel said the new sales requirements could inhibit environmental progress by pushing buyers to hold onto their current vehicles for longer or to go out of state to buy new ones.