ATA President Urges European Parliament to Reject Extreme California Emissions Plans
American Trucking Associations President and CEO Chris Spear told members of the European Parliament that the international governing body should embrace realistic, achievable timelines to reduce emissions, rejecting California’s unrealistic and unreasonable timelines. “California’s development of the Advanced Clean Truck and Advanced Clean Fleet rules aim to create a zero-emission vehicle market beginning next year. Given where the technology, infrastructure, power grid, cost and operational requirements stand, these regulations will undoubtedly fail to deliver the vehicles and market adoption California seeks,” Spear said in his testimony. “California’s response is predictable: They will just adjust the timelines and percentage targets, unleashing even more uncertainty for the industry. This was the case for the passenger vehicle industry, and we expect history to repeat itself.” ATA has consistently called for unified regulations across all 50 states. Spear noted that next year, because of California’s extreme regulatory push, the industry will be forced to contend with dueling regulatory regimes – one for California and one for the other 49 states.