EMA Lawsuit: CARB Emissions Rule Violates Clean Air Act

(TruckingInfo.com) The Truck and Engine Manufacturers Association has sued the California Air Resources Board, saying the agency has not provided enough lead time for truck and engine makers to meet its latest emission standards due to go into effect in 2024.

On Dec. 22, 2021, CARB adopted the Heavy-Duty Engine and Vehicle Omnibus Regulation, a package of stringent emission standards, test procedures, and other emission-related requirements applicable to new heavy-duty on-highway engines and vehicles sold in California. The Omnibus Regulation requires heavy-duty engine and vehicle manufacturers to comply with the new standards on Jan. 1, 2024, giving manufacturers only two years of lead time.

The federal Clean Air Act allows California to establish its own emissions standards, EMA said, provided California meets certain requirements — including providing heavy-duty on-highway engine and vehicle manufacturers four full model years of lead time.

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The Omnibus Regulations would require, among other things, that heavy-duty engine manufacturers develop and deploy new technology to reduce nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions initially by 75% and particulate emissions by 50%, demonstrate emissions compliance on entirely new test cycles, and ensure emissions compliance for certain “Class 3” heavy-duty engines using new durability test procedures out to an extended “useful life” range of 150,000 miles instead of 120,000 miles, explains the lawsuit filing. It would require engine manufacturers to redesign, test and build their engines to comply with all of those new requirements starting with Model Year 2024, which begins, at the latest,—on Jan. 1, 2024. READ MORE