California is blessed to be the bread basket for the world, supplying communities with sweet, juicy oranges, mouthwatering cherries, shiny, crunchy grapes, creamy silk milk and so much more locally-grown food. Getting food safely to stores — and, eventually, to our kitchen tables — requires a reliable supply chain dependent on diesel trucks. However, our supply chain is threatened by strangling regulations from the California Air Resources Board.
In 2023, the board adopted the Advanced Clean Fleets Regulation banning the sale of non-electric trucks by 2036. This mandate was poorly planned and took into account minimal input from those impacted.
To enforce its regulation, the California Air Resources Board needed permission from the federal government. However, in January of this year, before President Donald Trump took office, the board withdrew its application for a waiver . This was welcomed news for the entire trucking and agriculture industries.
Opinion
The board’s mandate to transition to electric trucks is not currently feasible and would have resulted in a less resilient food supply chain, raising prices even higher. Despite this, the state’s Air Resources Board has stubbornly kept this job-killing regulation on the books. Why? The reason is unclear, as the board has not been transparent about its plans…