U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently granted two requests for waivers of preemption for four California Air Resource Board regulations regarding the state's heavy-duty vehicle and engine emission standards.
Under the Clean Air Act, California has broad discretion to adopt emissions requirements to meet the state's "significant air quality challenges," according to a March 31 EPA news release. After reviewing the information provided by CARB and comments from the public, EPA agreed to the most recent waiver and authorization requests.
“Under the Clean Air Act, California has long standing authority to address pollution from cars and trucks," EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in the release. "Today’s announcement allows the state to take additional steps in reducing their transportation emissions through these new regulatory actions.”
CARB requested two waivers for regulations relating to heavy-duty vehicles and engines, the release reported. The two waivers of preemption address the 2018 Heavy-duty Warranty Amendments, which extend the emissions warranty periods for on-road heavy-duty diesel engines and diesel vehicles with a gross vehicle weight rating exceeding 14,000 pounds powered by such engines.
The Advanced Clean Trucks Regulation requires manufacturers to produce and sell increasing quantities of medium- and heavy-duty zero-emission vehicles and near zero-emission vehicles in California, according to the release.
The waiver request also includes two additional regulations, the Zero Emission Airport Shuttle Bus Regulation, which establishes steadily increasing zero-emission airport shuttle fleet composition requirements for airport shuttle fleet owners who service the 13 largest California airports, and the Zero Emission Powertrain Certification Regulation, which establishes certification requirements and optional emission standards for medium- and heavy-duty zero-emission vehicles and the zero-emission powertrains installed in such vehicles, the release said.
EPA expects to act upon CARB’s request for a waiver of preemption for the Heavy-Duty Omnibus Low NOx Regulation as appropriate, the release reported. This establishes "criteria pollutant emission standards for nitrogen oxide and particulate matter, as well as other emission-related requirements for new 2024 and subsequent model year on-road medium- and heavy-duty engines and vehicles."
