DES MOINES, IOWA (September 17, 2024) — Today, during National Truck Driver Appreciation Week, Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird sent a letter to the Biden-Harris EPA, urging it to deny California’s request for a waiver that would allow it to mandate that if a traditional gas-powered truck hauls through the state of California, even one time, the entire fleet become 100% electric.
The green-fleet mandate applies to all trucking companies with at least fifty trucks, including those based outside California. Electric semis barely exist beyond prototypes, and those that do exist are much more expensive. If forced to trade their traditional semi-trucks for more expensive electric trucks, some companies may be forced to cut jobs or close shop. The mandate will also burden Iowans by increasing the price of every product, from agriculture to groceries, that is shipped by a company that hauls through California. And it risks crashing the supply chain by increasing shipping times and straining already stressed power grids.
This letter follows a lawsuit Iowa joined in May to challenge California’s unconstitutional green-fleet mandate and fight against the Biden-Harris Administration’s greater war on gas vehicles.
“California does not get to make the rules for the rest of the country,” said AG Bird. “If California’s unconstitutional green-fleet mandate is left unchecked, it will kill jobs, inflate prices for hard-working families, crash our power grids, and ravage the supply chain. But not on my watch. We are fighting to put pull the plug on California’s green fleet mandate.”
The States make the case that California’s green-fleet mandate violates federal law, such as the Clean Air Act, and that the Constitution does not allow California to dictate what trucks are driven in other states.
Iowa joined the Nebraska-led letter, along with Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
Read the full letter here.
