A battle brewing between the state of California, the trucking industry and the federal government will now head to federal court.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom and state Attorney General Rob Bonta, both Democrats, filed a lawsuit in federal court after President Donald Trump signed congressional resolutions in June that canceled waivers the state had received from the Environment Protection Agency. The three waivers Trump revoked all dealt with the state’s emission standards for vehicles in the coming years, two of which directly affected the trucking industry.
The Advanced Clean Trucks waiver, issued by President Joe Biden’s administration in 2023, required nearly half of Class 8 tractors sold in California to be emission-free by 2035. The Heavy Duty Low NOx Omnibus waiver, issued in December 2024, called for a 90% reduction in the emission of nitrogen oxide from trucks by 2027.
The trucking industry protested California’s restrictions, saying they were impractical and unrealistic standards. Congress turned to the Congressional Review Act, which allows it to reject actions by federal agencies. The U.S. House of Representatives and Senate voted against both of the truck-related waivers, along with one that allowed the state to enforce strict emission rules for cars. Newsom and Bonta called the resolutions illegal.
The Senate parliamentarian and the Government Accountability Office both said before the congressional votes that the EPA waivers did not qualify for review under the CRA. The Republican-led House and Senate disregarded those viewpoints and voted the waivers down.
All six Arkansas Congressional members voted against the waivers. The ACT waiver went down 51-45 in the Senate and 231-191 in the House, while the NOx waiver was voted down by 49-46 and 225-196 margins.
Arkansas Trucking Association President Shannon Newton said she supported the revoking of the waivers. Newton said the trucking industry is supportive of lower emissions and protecting the environment, but only in ways that also make sense for the industry’s economics.
“It’s essential that such transitions are grounded in technological feasibility, supply chain readiness, and economic practicality — especially for an industry that is the backbone of the national economy,” Newton said. “The California rules, while ambitious, are widely seen as premature and out of step with the market realities for fleets across the country.
“A one-size-fits-all mandate risks imposing costly, unworkable standards on an industry already under pressure from inflation, labor shortages and equipment delays. The CRA action, in our view, is a necessary reset — a call for regulatory certainty, national uniformity and a more balanced approach to emissions reduction that doesn’t jeopardize freight movement or small-business viability.”
Newsom coined a catchphrase that said Trump was trying to make America smoggy again. “Trump’s all-out assault on California continues — and this time he’s destroying our clean air and America’s global competitiveness in the process,” Newsom said. “We are suing to stop this latest illegal action by a president who is a wholly owned subsidiary of big polluters.”
The trucking industry, however, was more than pleased with the repudiation. The Clean Air Act, which became law in 1970, allows California to apply for waivers from the EPA so it can adopt emission standards stricter than federal standards. Other states adopted, or planned to adopt, the stricter California emissions standards. Ten states joined California’s lawsuit against the government, Trump and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin.
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