Responding to Laura Watson's op-ed on the Advanced Clean Truck (ACT) rule, I'd like to share my lived experience from decades in trucking and the supply chain.
Our family entered trucking in 1946 when my grandfather bought his first two trucks, hauling Lucky Lager beer from Vancouver, WA. Over the decades, our operation grew to over 2,000 trucks by 2013 when we sold. We've also been heavy-duty truck dealers since 1985, expanding Gordon Truck Centers/Freightliner NW to 19 locations across several western states. We are one of the largest dealers in the country selling Freightliners, which has a 40% market share in North America.
In 2020, Democrats in the legislature passed SB 5811, adopting California’s emissions standards as mandated by the California Air Resources Board (CARB). CARB has a federal waiver to employ their own emissions standards addressing the unique issues facing their state. Other states may adopt CARB standards, but they must be accepted in whole, with no variation. Washington has now outsourced our emissions to an unelected, out-of-state regulatory body, with no ability to comment or influence their rulings.
Truck manufacturers have made incredible progress over the last 20 years meeting EPA limits. Since 2003, particulate matter has been reduced by half, and NOx has been reduced tenfold. Having grown up around diesel trucks from infancy (we lived for a few years in a corner of our truck yard), today’s trucks are nowhere near the “dirty diesel” depiction of some. In some jurisdictions, the exhaust is cleaner than the air around it, and I’ve been in plenty of indoor settings where a truck has been started and you don’t notice any difference from the exhaust.
The ACT rule mandates zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) increasing sales quotas each year, with 8% this year. While officials claim they haven't banned new truck sales, manufacturers must comply by prioritizing ZEV sales, effectively limiting diesel (internal combustion engine) orders. This regulation impacts our ability to sell trucks, as EVs aren't ready for commercial heavy-duty use.
For example, an EV truck costs around $400,000 compared to $150,000 for a diesel truck. EV trucks have a range of about 150 miles, whereas diesel trucks can go over 1,000 miles on a single tank. Additionally, EV trucks weigh approximately 8,000 pounds more, reducing their payload capacity and making them less efficient for weight-sensitive loads.
Charging infrastructure is another major issue. The existing fueling network took decades to build; however, there are nearly zero EV charging locations for trucks. Expanding electrical capacity is challenging and often denied by local utilities. For instance, one of our larger dealership locations in a major supply chain hub requested expanded capacity from the local utility only to be told no. This lack of infrastructure makes it difficult to support the mandated shift to ZEVs.
While officials in Washington and Oregon both claim that they haven’t “banned” new truck sales, they effectively have. Because manufacturers pay a penalty and take the regulation seriously, the only way they can ensure compliance is to have dealers first show evidence of a compliant ZEV sale before allowing a corresponding diesel or internal combustion engine order. Regulators seem to now blame manufacturers for attempting to comply with their regulations. To be clear, manufacturers want to build trucks and we want to sell them regardless of how they’re powered. But now we’re a dealership with no trucks to sell.
Many of us pointed out the folly of tying ourselves to a highly ideological California regulatory board solving for a different set of challenges in the most radical way possible. We are now completely reliant on CARB for any changes or implementation delays. Given recent tragic fires in SoCal, it seems they will likely be even more preoccupied with local issues than states outside their purview. Washington lawmakers are handing a huge competitive advantage to other states not subject to these unreachable targets. Ironically, forcing fleets to forgo sales on new cleaner ICE vehicles will extend the life of older trucks in their fleets, assuring higher emissions than if we hadn’t lashed ourselves to California’s radical approach.
It's time to face reality and put control back in the hands of lawmakers and regulatory agencies accountable to Washingtonians.
