Heavy-Duty Truck Makers Agree to Dissolve Pact to Electrify Fleets: EMA

Heavy-duty truck manufacturers have agreed to end a 2023 "Clean Truck Partnership" aimed at replacing internal combustion-powered trucks with electric vehicles, the Energy Marketers of America said on Monday.

EMA, the state of Nebraska and Renewable Fuels Nebraska in November sued the truck makers in a Nebraska state court, claiming that their partnership with the California Air Resources Board "is nakedly anti-competitive" because it is designed to ensure no company can benefit from selling an increased number of fossil fuel-powered vehicles while the others electrify their fleets.

The parties on Monday filed an agreement with the court to dismiss the case. The manufacturers agreed that the partnership was illegal under the Clean Air Act and cannot be enforced in Nebraska or elsewhere in the country.

Daimler Truck North America, International Motors, Paccar Inc., Volvo Group North America and the Truck and Engine Manufacturers Association were named as defendants in the lawsuit. The suit said the defendants "dominate, if not comprise, the U.S. market for Class 8 ICE vehicles."

"CARB's aggressive attempt to electrify the heavy-duty transportation sector threatened to limit consumer choice on cleaner, greener internal combustion engine vehicles, increase Americans' utility bills to subsidize a massive expansion of the electric grid for EV charging, and endanger the viability and jobs of small business energy marketers around the country," EMA President Rob Underwood said in a news release. EMA represents liquid transportation fuel marketers.

President Trump in June signed three Congressional Review Act resolutions designed to rescind federal waivers that allowed California to set its own vehicle emissions standards that could be adopted by other states.

California and 10 other states in June filed a lawsuit challenging the resolutions with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California at Oakland.

--Reporting by Donna Harris, dharris@opisnet.com; Editing by Jeff Barber, jbarber@opisnet.com