California Pulls Plug on its Delusional Electric Truck Mandate
This is one small win for Californians, and one big win for the rest of the country.
Legal Insurrection readers may recall that among the California electric vehicle mandates, there were requirements for trucks under the Advanced Clean Fleet rules. Specifically, by 2035, 40% to 75% of new medium- and heavy-duty trucks (depending on vehicle category) must be zero-emission.
Now the state agency responsible for this delusional and destructive mandate has pulled the plug on the rule.
Gov. Gavin Newsom spent Climate Week positioning California as the foil to the Trump administration’s assault on electric vehicles, but the scope of the damage was in full view Thursday as air regulators put the final nail in the coffin for the state’s electric truck sales mandates.
The California Air Resources Board — a powerful agency that sets emissions standards for vehicles, power plants and other polluters — voted to repeal its zero-emission purchasing rule for private fleets, the final remnant of the state’s aggressive push to mandate a rapid electric transition in the trucking sector.
That decision was a formality after the agency failed to secure permission to enforce its stricter-than-federal Advanced Clean Fleets rule before President Donald Trump took office.
But coming on the heels of Trump’s revocation of a companion rule that would have required truck manufacturers to increasingly build and sell more electric models, the move shows how thoroughly Republicans have upended California’s strategy.
It's so rare I can give my fellow Americans good news from California! https://t.co/kGYVPx8z9R
— Leslie Eastman ☥ (@Mutnodjmet) September 30, 2025
In fact, back in August, when California decided to try and enforce its mandate, the Department of Justice sued.
The Department of Justice is charging the state of California with defying federal law by enforcing its electric truck mandate, according to complaints filed in California and Illinois on Thursday evening. The complaints ask the federal courts to declare California’s mandate illegal and to block the state from implementing it any further.
…”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,” the DOJ said in a statement.
Under federal law, California is only authorized to set its own vehicle emissions rules if the Environmental Protection Agency grants the state a waiver to do so. While the Biden administration had offered waivers allowing California to implement electric truck and electric vehicle mandates, Congress passed resolutions earlier this year rescinding them. According to the DOJ, however, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) has circumvented those resolutions under its so-called Clean Truck Partnership, which the agency has continued to enforce.
So this happy development is a direct consequence of the state not getting a waiver from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for its mandates.
Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers announced the legal settlement. The state had led a coalition of 17 states in challenging the Advanced Clean Fleets rules in court.
Among other things, a press release from the AG’s office explained, the ACF rule targeted any fleet that operated in California, regardless of where the fleet was headquartered. Given California’s large population and access to international ports, the news release said, this rule would have had nationwide effects on the supply chain.
In the settlement, California agreed not to enforce key provisions of the Advanced Clean Fleets rule, affecting what it called “high priority” and drayage fleets, and to start the process to repeal it.
California regulators also conceded that they cannot enforce California’s 2036 ban on the sale of internal-combustion trucks unless until the ban receives a Clean Air Act preemption waiver from the EPA. Such a waiver looks highly unlikely at this point.
This move also shows that President Trump developed sound strategies on how to effectively respond to “The Resistance” while he was away from the Oval Office. Those 4-years may have been a blessing in disguise for this country.
I am thrilled. This is one small win for regular Californians like myself, and one big win for the rest of the country.
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Comments
we could have zero vehicle pollutants and the left would still find ways to subvert happiness
its
what
they
do
They did that with ecigs. Zero pollution and they couldn’t abide someone enjoying something. They came up with all sorts of fake skience on how bad they are. when the opposite is true.
So when are we pulling the plug on CARB and permanantly preventing them from meddling in interstate commerce?
Remember when CARB changed the sulfur content in diesel fuel (literally tested on one laboratory diesel engine) and the new recipe ruined injecter o-rings on engines ranging from tractor rigs to Mercedes-Benz turbo diesels?
Rich people in Palo Alto flipped out because $$$ repairs.
CARB should have been disbanded decades ago. It’s just a political cudgel for the Left now.
“40% to 75% of new medium- and heavy-duty trucks (depending on vehicle category) must be zero-emission”
Zero emissions, does that include where they get their power from. Because unicorn farts are also emissions.
Solar and wind require emissions as well. As does breathing.
“That decision was a formality after the agency failed to secure permission to enforce its stricter-than-federal Advanced Clean Fleets rule before President Donald Trump took office.”
“California regulators also conceded that they cannot enforce California’s 2036 ban on the sale of internal-combustion trucks unless until the ban receives a Clean Air Act preemption waiver from the EPA.”
Why is this waiver necessary? Because Congress has exclusive legislative jurisdiction over interstate commerce, and these regulations would have a direct effect on interstate commerce. A State therefore needs a waiver in order to make and enforce rules that are otherwise only within the purview of Congress.
Now, apply this same concept to State laws that ban certain firearms, magazines, and other necessaries for firearms. When a State requires a manual safety on a handgun (not manufactured in that State), does this not affect industry in another State? Do “assault weapons” not cross state lines in the normal course of their distribution and sale? Why hasn’t someone attempted to apply the same standard to firearms as is applied to CA’s vehicle emission rules? If CA requires a waiver from the federal government for its rules concerning emissions, why does it not also need a waiver for its firearms restrictions? (Congress is already in the business of making firearms regulations, so it has asserted its prerogatives over the subject matter.)
The path to the solution you seek is not clear, but if you look carefully it is visible. The first step is to go back and read the original unabridged Congressional Record on the NFA ’34. The seeds to destruction are there. Then read the GFSZ original litigation (win at USSC) and follow-up law changes in Congress. Hold your nose and read Roberts’ findings in the Obamacare decision. Then read the two Raisin Board cases. Hmmm… the Commerce Clause has limits?
The Hobby Distillers case is another clue. Then read today’s opinion NOT defending the GFSZ in Montana. Dismissed for other grounds. Suppressor tax set to zero in 100 days. Hmmm.
The GFSZ is done. The NFA is done. The idea of using the Commerce Clause to over-rule the superseding law that is the 2nd is done. The cracks are spreading slowly now, but the collapse is inevitable.
Ban diesel trucks or not, it doesn’t matter as the infrastructure and technology simply isn’t there to support long-haul trucks based on battery technology. Trade through California would cease and the state implode.
We’re seeing this game play out in Maryland where electricity generation unless renewable is banned and importation of electricity – driven by northern Virginia data centers – driving up rates and imminent domain seizures for new power lines.
The mediocrity of politicians will force migrations fleeing idiotic policies.
California has major power issues with electricity. There are times of power outages and power brownouts. The Electric Vehicles, whether cars or trucks take long times at a charger and if there is power issues EV Semis are useless. Fuel is faster for all vehicles and ultimately cheaper.
Excellent. IC trucks no longer have to stop and idle at the California border. They can now enter the state freely, to deliver all the bacon, pork, and chicken that California no longer allows to be sold there.
Can we just pull the plug on CA?
I keep joking that we should trade it to Putin for peace in Ukraine, but I’m afraid he’d give the same answer the Somali leader gave when Trump offered him Omar.
Maybe give Omar to Putin and CA to Somalia then.
Remember how ll these leftist assholes in governments across the land were trying to Trump-proof everything?
Retards, I hate to tell you, especially you ‘federal judges’, if Trump wants something or wants you gone, he gets it and you’re gone. Lisa Cook, I’m lookin’ at you today…
Can you imagine CA trucks being forced to transfer their loads from EV trucks to regular trucks at the state line of CA as they depart the state?
Asian shippers stop using CA ports and use ports in mexico to access US market?
Because of environmental mandates and government interference, I pay 52 cents per kilowatt hour to power my home in Southern California. Yes, 52 cents. Meanwhile my sister in Texas pays 12 cents.
Meanwhile Gavin Newsom is closing nuke plants and not permitting crude oil pipelines or refineries. Soon we will be out of power in California.
A Tesla electro-truck caught fire and closed I-80 in California last August. Just imagine thousands of those firebombs roaming the roads.