Truck and Engine Manufacturers Association Lawsuit Letter

Subject: Stop Stalling Critical Clean, Zero-Emission Truck Standards

Everyone has the right to breathe clean air. Yet across the country, 137 million Americans live in counties with unhealthy levels of air pollution. In California, 98% of residents live in a county with poor air quality. Together, our organizations work to deliver on this commitment by rapidly zeroing out emissions from transportation, particularly of medium- and heavy-duty vehicles which have an outsized impact on air pollution. As such, we are deeply dismayed to see the Truck and Engine Manufacturers Association (EMA) ​​— which purports to represent your companies — file a lawsuit against California's life-saving clean truck regulation, the Heavy-Duty Omnibus rule. 

As members, we are asking you to make good on your promise of cleaner air and zero-emission trucks. We ask that you follow the actions of some of your fellow EMA members and publicly separate yourself from the lawsuit and encourage EMA to immediately halt all activity that is designed to slow or stall the transition to cleaner trucks

This lawsuit is a thinly-veiled delay tactic designed to slow the transition to cleaner trucks, which will in turn slow the transition to cleaner air in our communities. We are disturbed that EMA, in your name, is attacking a rule that will save approximately 2,480 people from premature death, and prevent 2,010 hospitalizations and emergency room visits by 2050, creating $23.4 billion in health benefits – prosperity that would be shared across hard-hit California communities. 

This lawsuit is the latest in a series of actions by EMA to oppose and delay critical regulations that will improve health and quality of life for the millions of people living in and around ports, warehouses and freeways. EMA has spent years vigorously fighting the adoption of important clean zero-emission truck standards. Diesel-powered trucks are a dirty fixture in many neighborhoods, spewing pollution near our homes, schools, and places of recreation. We need strong clean truck standards to help deliver vital relief that the most highly impacted communities demand and deserve. EMA's efforts to fight these life-saving policies are a direct attack on these communities’ right to a clean air future. 

Opposing vehicle emission standards is also self-defeating if manufacturers really want to clean up their act. Adoption of foundational emission standards like the Heavy Duty Omnibus rule unlock additional policies and resources to help manufacturers transition to zero-emission vehicles both here in California and in other eligible states across the country.

We want to believe that zeroing out emissions from your vehicles is important to your companies and shareholders. Your press statements and social media feeds are full of supportive messages about your commitment to cleaner transportation.It’s time for these verbal commitments to become concrete action. 

We are watching closely and look forward to your response.

Sincerely, 

• Ameen Khan, Regulatory Affairs Advocate, California Environmental Voters

• Scott Hochberg, Transportation Attorney, Center for Biological Diversity

• Marven Norman, Policy Specialist, Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice

• Kevin D. Hamilton, Co-Executive Director, Central California Asthma Collaborative

• Jesse N Marquez, Executive Director, Coalition For A Safe Environment

• Bill Magavern, Policy Director, Coalition for Clean Air

• Yasmine Agelidis, Associate Attorney, Earthjustice

• Alice Henderson, Director and Senior Attorney Transportation and Clean Air Policy, Environmental Defense Fund

• Andrea Marpillero Colomina, Sustainable Communities Program Director, GreenLatinos

• Matthew Davis, Senior Director of Government Affairs, League of Conservation Voters

• Heidi Harmon, Senior Public Affairs Director, Let's Green CA!

• Michael Munoz, Port Campaign Director, Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy

• Patricio Portillo, Senior Advocate, Natural Resources Defense Council

• Andrea Vidaurre, Policy Lead, Peoples Collective for Environmental Justice

• Anne Sheridan, Public Policy Team Co-chair, SanDiego350

• Lizbeth González Ruiz, Organizing Representative, Sierra Club

• Daniel Barad, Senior Policy Advocate, Sierra Club California

• Trip Pollard, Land & Community Program Leader, Southern Environmental Law Center

• Victoria Leistman, Senior International Campaigner, Stand.earth

• Leslie Aguayo, Climate Equity Program Manager, The Greenlining Institute

• Sam Wilson, Senior Vehicles Analyst, Union of Concerned Scientists