California regulators on Thursday repealed a state rule requiring large trucking companies to buy more electric trucks, a win for the Trump administration as it rolls back Biden-era policies that force consumers to buy EVs.
The California Air Resources Board voted to scrap its zero-emission purchasing rule for private companies’ fleets of trucks, the agency announced in a press release. Politico reported that the rule was “the final remnant of the state’s aggressive push to mandate a rapid electric transition in the trucking sector.”
The Thursday vote was merely “a formality,” the report went on, “after the agency failed to secure permission to enforce its stricter-than-federal Advanced Clean Fleets rule before President Donald Trump took office.” Under the Clean Air Act, California can request waivers from the Environmental Protection Agency to adopt emission regulations that are stricter than the federal baseline.
Since retaking office, Trump has moved to reverse the Biden administration’s EV mandates. In June, Trump signed three resolutions that revoked EPA waivers allowing California to enforce stricter emissions standards. Last month, the Department of Justice sued California for allegedly circumventing the resolutions and trying to enforce its electric truck mandate.
Trump has also signed an executive order that freezes the Biden administration’s $7.5 billion program to install electric vehicle charging stations across the United States. The EV charging initiative built just 384 charging ports at 68 stations in 16 states since November 2021, less than 0.2 percent of the roughly 219,000 public EV charging ports operating nationwide, according to a July report by the Government Accountability Office.
In May, Vermont paused its electric vehicle mandate law as consumers continued to buy gas-powered cars, the Washington Free Beacon reported at the time. Connecticut, Maryland, Virginia, and Delaware have similarly withdrawn, delayed, or scaled back plans to mandate EVs.
The governors of those states “understand what is happening,” John Bozzella, the president and CEO of the auto industry group Alliance for Automotive Innovation, told the Free Beacon at the time. “Not enough customers and insufficient charging for these unachievable EV sales requirements.”
