AG Brenna Bird joins letter urging EPA to deny California electric vehicle trucking rules

Trucks and cars drive down the New Jersey Turnpike February 23, 2005 in Elizabeth, New Jersey. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird joined a letter urging the Environmental Protection Agency to deny California’s request for a waiver to implement new standards that she said could ban traditional gas-powered trucks in the state.

California requested a preemption waiver to implement administrative rules under 2023 California regulation called “Advanced Clean Fleets,” imposed by the California Air Resources Board. The rule would ban the sale of larger diesel vehicles beginning in 2036 and ban internal-combustion engines in medium- and heavy-duty vehicles by 2045. The letter, headed by Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers, called for the EPA to deny the state’s request because of its impacts on other states.

“Through Advanced Clean Fleets, California is attempting to export its radical climate agenda to our States, using its large population, market share, and access to international ports on the West Coast to force nationwide compliance with its ban on internal-combustion trucks,” the letter stated. “… An electric-truck mandate in California means more battery electric trucks traveling in our States—a mandate our States did not ask for and do not support.”

Bird also joined a lawsuit headed by Nebraska opposing the regulations, which she and other opponents argue would force trucking companies across the country to have entirely electric vehicle fleets by 2042. In a May news conference, Bird said allowing California to adopt these state regulations would result in supply chain problems and increase costs for consumers, as trucking companies would have to comply with these standards to operate in the state, even if the companies are based outside of California.

Bird reiterated these arguments in a Tuesday statement on joining the letter, saying “California does not get to make the rules for the rest of the country.”

“If California’s unconstitutional green-fleet mandate is left unchecked, it will kill jobs, inflate prices for hard-working families, crash our power grids, and ravage the supply chain,” Bird said. “But not on my watch. We are fighting to put pull the plug on California’s green fleet mandate.”

Alongside Iowa and Nebraska, attorneys general in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming signed onto the letter.