OKLAHOMA CITY (June 8, 2023) - Attorney General Gentner Drummond has joined a coalition of 19 states challenging the Environmental Protection Agency decision allowing California to illegally ban trucks. The ban forces truckers to buy electric trucks and regulates trucking out of existence through mandating net-zero emissions standards.
The Biden Administration gave California the authority to force most buses, vans, trucks and tractor-trailers to be electric by 2035. Currently, only 2 percent of heavy trucks sold in the U.S. are electric.
The prohibition on traditional trucks is part of the Biden Administration’s extreme climate change agenda hiking prices for businesses and consumers. Costs for electric trucks already start at about $100,000 and can reach the high six figures. And even worse – California’s new regulations are setting the standard for the rest of the country. Eight other states already have adopted California’s truck ban, and more are considering it.
That makes California a major decision-maker for the future of the national trucking industry. That state’s truck ban will not only increase costs, but it will devastate the demand for liquid fuels, such as biodiesel, and eliminate trucking jobs across the nation.
“Extreme climate change crusaders are willing to do any amount of damage to the fossil fuels industry, regardless of the negative impact to Oklahomans and millions of other Americans,” Drummond said. “I am pleased to join my colleagues across the nation in continuing the fight against the ceaseless federal overreach of the Biden Administration.”
California’s Advanced Clean Trucks regulation is in violation of the Clean Air Act and other federal laws.
The lawsuit, which is led by Iowa, has also been joined by Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, Utah and West Virginia.
Read the full petition for review here.