South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson has announced a significant development in a case involving the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and California's Advanced Clean Fleets regulation. The EPA has decided to close the file on California's request for a waiver that would have allowed the state to enforce an electric-truck mandate affecting fleet owners, operators, and manufacturers nationwide.
Attorney General Wilson was part of a 24-state coalition that opposed California's waiver request last September. He emphasized the potential nationwide impact of California's regulation due to the state's role as a major entry point for goods distributed across the country. "Even though this issue is specific to California, it would affect the rest of the states as well, because so many goods come into California and are then trucked to the rest of the country," he stated. Wilson further argued against allowing any single state to dictate policies reserved for federal governance.
The opposition letter from the coalition contended that granting such a waiver would allow California to exceed its statutory authority under the Clean Air Act, potentially disrupting national logistics and transportation industries. Although other requests from California were granted by the EPA earlier this month, no action was taken on their Advanced Clean Fleets request. Subsequently, California withdrew its request on Monday, leading to the EPA closing the file.
In addition to his involvement with this coalition, Attorney General Wilson is also participating in separate litigation with another group of 17 states challenging Advanced Clean Fleets in court proceedings currently pending in the Eastern District of California.
The comment letter opposing California’s waiver was led by Nebraska and included attorneys general from Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming.