Will the Senate vote to consign the American freight system to higher costs and antiquated trucking technology, perhaps permanently? If it does, it will be in large part the fault of the giant truck manufacturers themselves, who appear perfectly happy to stick trucking fleets with diesel-guzzling models and the volatile prices at the pump that go with them.
Last month, the House ignored decades of precedent in response to millions in lobbying dollars by voting to overturn the Biden administration’s clean truck rules, which would block two regulations that 11 states have adopted to gradually increase sales of zero-emissions trucks.
Though truck manufacturers including Volvo and Daimler agreed to the rules in 2023, they have since been working behind the scenes to kill them, likely because the margins on diesel trucks are bigger — and they are holding the trucking industry hostage in the process.
California’s rules for clean trucks do not ban diesel trucks, do not impose any requirements on trucking fleet owners or dealers and have not caused truck prices to jump. I know this because I helped write those rules while I worked at California Air Resources Board.
In fact, since the manufacturers are already making these cleaner engines, there are hundreds of models of zero-emission trucks and vans out there — and the rules phase in over a decade, so this isn’t about feasibility. A McKinsey report predicts electric trucks to be cheaper to run than diesels within the decade, and nations such as China have booming electric truck sales.
Instead, this looks like multi-billion dollar companies would rather not spend their money right now, and they’d love Congress’s help in blowing up rules that push them faster — even if it means the entire U.S. freight sector falls behind global competitors.
This isn’t an easy time for the trucking industry, which is under attack by the Trump administration. We are already seeing some big job losses, from cuts to jobs at UPS to Volvo truck manufacturing. President Trump’s tariffs and trade wars are having a devastating impact and businesses that operate truck fleets are bracing for plummeting freight jobs, with a host of knock-on effects.
Coupled with this, Trump has launched an investigation into trucking, ostensibly for “national security” reasons, but which may be a prelude to tariffs on truck imports. This will drive up the prices of trucks, loading even more misery onto the industry. An executive order requiring English proficiency among truck drivers will also affect a sector with higher illiteracy rates and which relies on migrant labor.
I get why some members of Congress think that cutting these rules would be doing the trucking industry a favor. But letting the industry fall further behind isn’t helping anybody. If the Senate follows the House and votes to rescind the clean trucks rules, it will stall investment in new technology and penalize hundreds of businesses already operating cleaner trucks. Meanwhile, the giant truck manufacturers that dominate this market will get to slow-walk modernizing America’s entire freight system.
The manufacturers’ strategy involves pushing the onus for implementation of the rules onto fleet owners and truck dealers, forcing some to buy electric trucks that they don’t need and at prices they don’t want. An investigation by the California Air Resources Board pinpoints this practice and also details the inflated prices they are setting for electric trucks sold in the U.S. — over $80,000 more than similar models in Europe. Daimler even briefly stopped all sales of diesel trucks in Oregon this January in an effort to whip trucking fleets and dealers into a frenzy. Truck manufacturers need oversight, not carte blanche to mess around with states and truck drivers.
The truck manufacturers have managed to stay largely out of the limelight, though the governors of nine states wrote to them demanding they end the pressure on the trucking industry. Meanwhile, a March letter to Congress from a number of industry groups asking it to kill off the clean trucks rules has the handprints of the truck manufacturers, as well as the oil and gas industry, all over it.
States have been choosing to lead on modernizing trucking while tackling the deadly effects of diesel pollution — keeping us in the game even in the face of the Trump administration’s mistakes. But the Senate could take away our best chance to compete if it votes with the House.
Running our entire freight system on 20th-century technology is not good for anyone. Almost every item Americans buy has been delivered via a truck and this industry deserves better than to become a political football for the White House, Congress and truck manufacturers.
The Senate should vote to support long-term progress in the industry, and a modernized freight system — not for chaos, high diesel prices and even more power for giant corporations.
Craig Segall is a former deputy executive officer and assistant chief counsel of the California Air Resources Board.
