The California air is under attack – by the very companies that have promised to clean it up.
In 2023, truck makers on the California Air Resources Board significantly reduced their emissions and invested in electric trucks. However, this summer, several companies, DaimlerTruck, Volvo Group, Packer and Traton, retreated from the partnership and sued California with support from the Trump administration. Currently, fossil fuel fusion companies are using political ties to weaken surveillance, erode environmental protection and establish control.
This is no longer just truck ejection. It’s about who can write the rules governing our economy and who decides how our nation is polluted. It’s about protecting democracy from corporate overreach.
The leading truck makers who are doing business in California are likely to see opportunities to benefit from diesel under new federal leadership, injecting instability into markets that were once trying to stabilize. This is political opportunism, simple and simple.
The 2023 deal, known as the Clean Truck Partnership, was rooted in trust and common interest in predictable and stable rules during the transition from fossil fuels. It was not a regulation or law. It was a collaboration. It was an experiment on handshake agreements that now seem like a warning story for regulators and communities. Companies can move away from such transactions at the moment when political winds change or quarterly revenue decrease.
The manufacturer’s free lawsuit is in parallel with the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposal and the surprising Federal Trade Commission’s move to condemn the partnership. The committee issued a statement that it had never made publicly after the company sent its letter. Is it surprising that Trump sues California along with truck makers?
The consequences of breaking the agreement are realistic and catastrophic. Diesel cargo pollution is long Hit the most hardest Low-income areas and areas of colour near ports, warehouses and cargo corridors have higher incidences of asthma, heart disease and cancer. Rolling back clean truck partnerships will shorten more diesel trucks, more hospital visits and more lives on California roads. It is an attack on environmental justice that tells Californians that their health can be consumed.
And everyone pays. Delaying adoption of clean trucks will infiltrate and undermine the fleet into the US competitiveness. The manufacturers themselves maintain that crisis by discouraging them from moving to electric trucks. California records markup for several electric trucks in the US compared to Europe.
When a few companies can derail public policy like this, the states must push back. California tried to compromise. Now we must set stronger standards, invest in clean infrastructure, and defend our right to reject subsidies for businesses that break our commitments.
California’s leadership on clean transportation helped it become that. The authority to set its own standards has driven innovation, created jobs and placed it. The public wants clean air and modern infrastructure. The choice is clear. Watch as clean truck commitments double, give up leadership, and industry and economy lag behind.
Predictable markets are essential for corporate investments in the energy transition. California brokered this partnership and provided the certainty that manufacturers needed and said they said. Now some of those same manufacturers are adding uncertainty by trying to return to old standards and delay the transition. But it has to come, and for the manufacturers, Californians, and the country, the earlier it is, the better.
There’s still time to do the right thing. Truckmakers who broke their own words can still step up to electrify their trucks. And manufacturers who are not participating in lawsuits against California (Cummins, Ford, General Motors, Stellantis) need to publicly reaffirm their clean truck partnership goals, chase their commitments and get rewarded. If these companies currently choose to stand in California, they don’t simply respect the promise. They help build an economy that produces good work, promotes innovation and ensures a future for American freight competition.
Guillermo Ortiz is a senior clean vehicle advocate for the Natural Resources Defense Council. Craig Segall is a former assistant executive officer and an aide to the California Air Resources Board.
