The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has declared that an emissions agreement between California and four major truck makers is “unenforceable” — paving the way for noncompliance with the Golden State’s stricter-than-federal pollution rules.
The FTC made this determination as the agency closed an investigation into whether several truck and engine manufacturers violated antitrust laws by engaging in a voluntary “Clean Truck Partnership” with the California Air Resources Board (CARB).
Truck manufacturers, in the July 2023 partnership, agreed to abide by California’s emissions standards in exchange for certain concessions.
Among those standards is the Advanced Clean Trucks rule, which requires 7.5 percent of heavy-duty vehicles to be emissions-free by 2035. The Omnibus Regulation, meanwhile, has sought to slash nitrogen oxide emissions by 90 percent and update engine testing protocols.
The FTC said on Monday that it was closing the antitrust investigation after receiving commitments from four truck manufacturers — Daimler Truck, International Motors, PACCAR and Volvo Group — that they would abandon the Clean Truck Partnership.
Specifically, the commitments agreed that “the Clean Truck Partnership is unenforceable and that none of the manufacturers has ever or will ever attempt to enforce the Clean Truck Partnership’s terms against another manufacturer,” according to the FTC.
“CARB’s regulatory overreach posed a major threat to American trucking and, in our view, presented serious antitrust concerns,” Taylor Hoogendoorn, deputy director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition, said in a statement.
“The Bureau is pleased that the leading heavy-duty truck manufacturers agreed to a course correction,” Hoogendoorn continued, adding that the reversal would put the partnership “squarely in the rearview mirror and prevent repeats of CARB’s troubling regulatory gambit.”
The FTC’s announcement came a day after the same four truck makers filed a lawsuit against California regulators, arguing that the Golden State lacks the authority to enforce its heavy-duty vehicle emissions rules.
The complaint alleges that the federal government had rendered the stricter-than-federal standards “unlawful” in June. At the time, President Trump signed off on three congressional resolutions that upended the rules, which previously received the approval of the Biden administration.
In closing the antitrust investigation, an FTC statement referred to past concerns causing the agency to launch the case.
Criticizing the structure of the Clean Truck Partnership, the FTC expressed concern that the agreement “forced manufacturers to produce ‘zero emissions’ engines” even if CARB rules were later overturned.
The agency also expressed concern that “the agreement did not foreclose one truck manufacturer from enforcing its restrictions against a competing truck manufacturer.”
The Hill has reached out to CARB for comment on the FTC decision.
