Electric trucks on Alaska’s Haul Road? They’d be as useful as an ejection seat on a helicopter.
Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor has joined a coalition of states in filing yet another lawsuit against the Biden Administration for imposing unreasonable regulations on heavy-duty vehicles. The lawsuit, led by Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers, was filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
The states charge that the Environmental Protection Agency’s rule imposing stringent tailpipe emissions standards for heavy-duty vehicles effectively forces manufacturers to produce more electric trucks and fewer internal-combustion trucks.
Right now, electric trucks—and the infrastructure needed to support them—are virtually nonexistent. They also have shorter ranges and require longer stops.
In Alaska’s long-haul uses, including the remote Dalton Highway to Deadhorse, an electric truck would add an increased element of danger to the driver.
The Biden rule would require manufacturers to produce fewer vehicles that utilize reliable internal-combustion technology.
A separate coalition of 17 states and the Nebraska Trucking Association filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California that seeks to block a package of regulations targeting trucking fleet owners and operators.
The lawsuit against California challenges a suite of California regulations called Advanced Clean Fleets that require certain trucking fleet owners and operators to retire internal-combustion trucks and transition to more expensive and less efficient electric trucks. The rule applies to fleets that are headquartered outside of California if they operate within California. Given California’s large population and access to ports for international trade, this regulation will have significant nationwide effects on the supply chain.
The lawsuits argue the Biden Administration and California regulators exceeded their constitutional and statutory authority in forcing the entire country to transition to electric trucks.
In addition to their legal flaws, both regulations defy the reality that electric trucks are inefficient and costly and will harm citizens by increasing the costs of interstate transportation, raising prices for goods, and burdening the electric power grid, Hilgers said.
Hilgers recently won a lawsuit that stopped the Biden Administration from forcing States to reduce on-road C02 emissions, and he won an early victory in a lawsuit challenging the Securities and Exchange Commission’s rule requiring businesses to make climate change disclosures.
Alaska’s AG Taylor and the following states joined the lawsuit against the Biden Administration: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
