- WORLD NET DAILY - WND News Services - John Hugh DeMastri - MAR 31, 2023 -
Environmental regulations would eventually result in statewide ban on diesel-powered heavy duty trucks
The Biden administration has given California permission to go ahead with a set of environmental regulations that would eventually result in a statewide ban on diesel-powered heavy duty trucks, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced Friday.
California had been seeking federal approval under the Clean Air Act to implement the strict regulations, which would ban the sale of diesel-powered heavy-duty vehicles in the state after 2045, and require more than half of diesel trucks be all-electric by 2035. California has previously implemented rules that would forbid the sale of gas-powered cars after 2035, and six other states are expected to follow California’s lead with similar regulations now that it has received federal approval, according to the New York Times.
“California leads the way once again,” said the state’s Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom in a tweet Friday. “Time to stop playing small ball.”
The proposed regulations had drawn criticism from the American Trucking Association, who told the Daily Caller News Foundation in a statement last week that the proposal would cause “catastrophic disruptions” outside of California. Steve Bradbury, a former lawyer for both the Trump and Bush administrations, told the DCNF that the EPA granting California permission to go ahead with the rules was along “one single state” to “essentially dictate the regulation of interstate commerce” since it would uneconomical for truckmakers to produce two different sets of trucks for California and other states.
Newsom seemed to acknowledge the state’s ability to shift the national market in an interview with the NYT Friday.