via Mike Shedlock:
New restrictions on diesel trucks starts January 1. The rush to buy new diesel trucks is underway.
California’s Zero-Emissions Rule Triggers a Run on Diesel Rigs
The Wall Street Journal reports California’s Zero-Emissions Rule Triggers a Run on Diesel Rigs
The California rule will phase out the use of diesel trucks until the more than 30,000 diesel big rigs that now serve the state’s ports are banned by 2035.
The regulation is already proving a challenge for truckers across California, from the agricultural export hub at the Port of Oakland to the nation’s busiest gateway for containerized imports at the Southern California ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Trucking executives say the state’s regulators are getting far out in front of the industry’s ability to deliver zero-emission rigs.
The technology underpinning electric vehicles is still developing, they say, and the zero-emission trucks are triple the cost of diesel trucks, while the vehicles and charging stations are in limited supply. “I have to think every trucker in California is doing all they can to get as many pre-mandate trucks in place as they possibly can,” said Kenny Vieth, president of ACT Research.
Production of the [electric] vehicles is so limited and the cost and complexity of running the trucks so high that there are fewer than 150 zero-emission trucks in service at the Southern California ports today, said Matt Schrap, CEO of the Harbor Trucking Association trade group. The most advanced of those trucks, say trucking executives, can’t travel more than a few hundred miles between charges, so they can only run short trips between ports and nearby rail yards and warehouses.
The electric trucks themselves are also proving a problem. Nikola and Volvo Trucks North America this summer recalled trucks because of defective parts thought to pose a fire risk. Jim Gillis, president of port trucker Pacific Drayage Services, said he is on his third recall since receiving six Volvo electric trucks in January. Gillis said that when a diesel truck needs repair it is usually in the shop for three to four days. When a $400,000 electric truck is recalled it is usually out of action for longer. “That’s an expensive asset to lose for three to four weeks,” he said.
Manufacturers and California Reach a Deal
On July 6, Cal Matters reported California and Manufacturers Strike Deal Over Zero-Emission Trucks.
California and major truck manufacturers announced a deal today that would avoid a legal battle over the state’s landmark mandate phasing out diesel big rigs and other trucks.
In return, the Air Resources Board will relax some near-term requirements for trucks to reduce emissions of a key ingredient of smog to more closely align with new federal standards.
The powerful Truck and Engine Manufacturers Association as well as 10 manufacturers, including Cummins, Inc., Daimler Truck North America, Volvo Group North America and Navistar, Inc. signed on to the deal.
What About the Truckers?
How nice of the manufacturers and the state to come to an agreement. But it seems like they left the truckers, especially the small independents, out of the discussion.
How many of them can afford to pay two or three times as much for a truck?
Once again, note the huge inflationary madness that the tag team of Biden and California have brought the nation.
A top executive of the trucking industry had predicted economic chaos and dysfunction and said the mandate is likely to “fail pretty spectacularly.”
Golden Powers
It’s the Golden State’s Special Powers that allowed this bargain.
For decades, California has relied on the bureaucratic equivalent of a superpower: It has had special federal permission to make tougher air regulations than the U.S. government.
The origin of this dates back to the smog that began choking Los Angeles in the 1940s.
So when changes to the Clean Air Act decades ago stopped individual states from making their own tailpipe emissions rules, California got a pass. If California’s rules are just as tough, or tougher, than the federal ones, the EPA must grant it a waiver. There are only a few specific circumstances when the EPA can deny the waiver, including if it decides California is being “arbitrary and capricious,” or that California doesn’t actually need the waiver to address “compelling and extraordinary conditions.”
California still needs to ask the EPA for a waiver whenever it wants to make new rules for vehicle exhaust or change existing rules on the books. The state has received dozens of these waivers, covering everything from refrigerated truck trailers to ships at berth in California ports.
Obama sided with California in disputes. Trump reversed Obama. And then Biden promptly reversed Trump.
I suggest this needs to go to the Supreme Court which hopefully will put an end to this silliness.
It’s not that I am a big fan of diesel. In fact, I am no diesel fan at all. But you cannot double or triple costs on the industry when the infrastructure is not even in place.
If the manufacturers want to make a deal with the devil, OK fine. But the costs better not be prohibitive to the truckers.
Unfortunately, the independent truckers are trapped in this Faustian bargain they were not even a part of.
It would be more than a bit fitting if the truckers responded by refusing to make deliveries in California. Let that message roar 10-4.
Huge Backlash Against Climate Change Has Started
Please note The Shocking Truth About Biden’s Proposed Energy Fuel Standards
Also, note A Huge Backlash Against Climate Change and Immigration Madness Has Started
The backlash cannot hit Biden and the state of California fast enough.