How California's Electric Truck Mandate Lost Power

California spent half a billion dollars to clean the air in its poorest neighborhoods. When voluntary programs failed to force change, the state approved a mandatory regulation that would have fundamentally reshaped who could participate in the trucking industry, often displacing the very people it claimed to protect. In January 2025, California withdrew its request for a federal waiver needed to enforce the Advanced Clean Fleets regulation, which required trucking fleets to transition to zero-emission vehicles. By May, the state had agreed to formally repeal the rule's core provisions.

Certain California communities have spent decades burdened with unhealthy air. Wilmington sits near the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, with the 710 freeway cutting through its center. Richmond has the refinery. San Bernardino has the warehouse sprawl. These neighborhoods, many of them designated under AB 617 for enhanced air quality intervention, face elevated rates of asthma, heart disease, and premature death.

In 2017, California passed Assembly Bill 617 to address this inequity. The law directed the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to identify communities suffering the worst air quality and invest resources to clean them up. Since passage, California has poured more than half a billion dollars into the effort. Trucks represent only 6 percent of vehicles on California roads but account for more than 35 percent of transportation-generated nitrogen oxide emissions. Cleaning the air in places like Wilmington meant dealing with trucks. provided funding for monitoring and incentives to encourage voluntary adoption of cleaner vehicles. But monitoring does not force change, and incentives alone proved insufficient. In April 2023, CARB approved the Advanced Clean Fleets regulation to provide the enforcement mechanism AB 617 lacked. The rule required certain trucking fleets to transition to zero-emission vehicles on an aggressive timeline. It applied to three categories: drayage trucks operating at California ports and railyards, state and local government fleets, and larger private fleets.

By 2024, specific fleets would need to start buying only electric trucks. By 2035, all drayage trucks serving ports and railyards would have to be zero-emission. By 2036, no new diesel trucks could be sold in California at all. CARB projected 26.6 billion dollars in health benefits from reduced asthma, emergency room visits, and respiratory illnesses. The agency estimated fleet owners would save 48 billion dollars in operating costs through 2050. The press releases were triumphant. Environmental justice advocates cheered.

A diesel Class 8 semi-truck costs roughly 150,000 to 175,000 dollars. An electric equivalent runs between 400,000 and 500,000 dollars. That price gap exists before accounting for charging infrastructure, which requires depot installations, electrical service upgrades, and potentially millions in utility connection fees. California offered a 120,000 dollar voucher through its HVIP program for zero-emission trucks. Even with this incentive, the gap remained substantial. An electric truck still cost 130,000 to 230,000 dollars more than diesel. For large fleets with access to capital markets, these were absorbable costs. For independent owner-operators, the numbers did not work.

The typical owner-operator finances a 150,000 dollar truck while managing tight margins on fuel, maintenance, and insurance costs that can total more than 80,000 dollars annually. Banks show little interest in financing a 280,000 dollar truck for someone whose current business barely generates enough to service a 150,000 dollar loan. A Ryder analysis found that switching to electric would double Class 8 vehicle operating costs. The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association warned that small-business truckers could be regulated out of existence. Even proponents acknowledged the implementation challenges.

Under the Clean Air Act, the state requires an EPA waiver. CARB submitted its Advanced Clean Fleets waiver request to the Biden administration in November 2023. Months passed. The regulation was supposed to begin enforcement in 2024, but CARB could not act without the waiver. The Trump administration's return loomed. Facing the certainty that the incoming administration would deny the waiver, California withdrew its request in January 2025. Industry groups that had filed multiple lawsuits secured legal settlements requiring California to formally repeal the high-priority fleet and drayage requirements by October 2025.

California's half-billion-dollar investment in AB 617 funded community air monitoring networks and some incentive programs for cleaner trucks. It created community steering committees and emission reduction plans. According to a 2021 assessment by environmental justice advocates, most of these plans were unenforceable and had little impact. Of the ten communities initially selected for AB 617 in 2018, only one, Wilmington, set concrete emission reduction goals. In at least four others, the plans simply listed actions agencies were already planning to undertake. The diesel trucks continued running. This track record is what led CARB to pursue mandatory regulations.

AB 617 was supposed to center affected communities through local steering committees, enhanced monitoring, and emission reduction programs designed with residents rather than imposed on them. When California moved from monitoring to mandating with the Advanced Clean Fleets regulation, however, the costs proved too high. The timeline was aggressive. The infrastructure was not there. The federal government declined to cooperate.

Many residents of these same communities work in trucking. Drayage drivers who move containers from ports to warehouses often operate as independent owner-operators. The work is tough, but it provides a path to the middle class. These drivers live in environmental justice communities. They breathe the unhealthy air. They also could not afford a 400,000 dollar electric truck. California is not abandoning its effort to clean the air. CARB will develop new approaches. The air in Wilmington remains polluted. The question is whether the next attempt to fix it will account for who pays the price.