The California Air Resources Board (CARB) approved regulations to ban the sale of diesel big-rig trucks statewide by 2036 at the end of April.  

This is the latest program in the state’s mission to weed out fossil fuels and greenhouse gas emissions.

CARB, founded in 1967, aims to aggressively address the serious issue of air pollution in the state, according to its webpage.

When the Federal Air Quality Act was enacted the same year, California’s government had the ability to set its own air quality rules because of the state’s weather and increasing number of people and vehicles.

“California is neat because we have CARB, and they are able to set emissions policy by themselves,” said economics assistant professor Paul Lombardi.  “Whereas most states have to follow the federal guidelines.”

The proposal also included a unanimous vote that requires companies with more than 50 trucks in California to convert its fleets to zero-emission vehicles by 2042.

Costanza Rampinii, an assistant professor of environmental studies, said the enactment of these laws and regulations against mobile sources of air pollution and greenhouse gasses are in line with California’s policies.

“We’ve always been ahead of other states, we’ve always been ahead of the EPA themselves,” Rampinii said.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency was created in 1970.

She said many states and countries have often looked at California as a reference when it comes to regulating different industries and sectors.

“This vote is great because it keeps us in line with our climate goals or greenhouse gas emission reduction goals,” Rampinii said. “And it’s really important because other states are likely to jump on board.”

Because the trucking industry involves crossing state lines as a part of moving goods and services, she said there is a high chance other states catch on.

Rampinii said some examples of states jumping on board with California regulations included the California Cap-and-Trade program, which helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions and funnel profit back into pollutant reducing programs, and the Zero-Emission Vehicle program, which requires state car manufacturers to sell zero-emission vehicles by 2035.

“Big-rigs do play a big part in kind of the trailer transportation network,” Lombardi said. “So having them switched to a different type of fuel will have a pretty significant impact.”

He said while there aren’t many options available for alternative fuel types for big-rigs, this will change in response to the board’s vote.

“Definitely to see big-rigs, not just in California, but across the country, kind of switching to these alternative fuel options,” Lombardi said. “It won’t be necessarily a smooth and easy process – we’re talking about thousands of vehicles.”

He said he expects to see the trucking industry experience a similar transition to that of car manufacturers following other zero-emissions vehicle programs.

“If we look at electrification of personal vehicles, there’s been kind of that slow progression and even if people wanted to buy electric cars until the last couple of decades, there wasn’t a good option available to even buy one of those cars,” Lombardi said. “It’s been kind of a gradual process as well.

Earlier this year, a PepsiCo plant in Sacramento was the first to receive several semi-trucks from Tesla.

“They specifically had infrastructure at their sites set up to charge those vehicles,” he said. “I think that will be kind of the challenge – making sure you not only prevent the vehicles from being purchased, but have the ability that people can switch over and then run them.”

Lombardi said there will be less demand for fossil fuels in the coming years, which will in turn result in a decrease in diesel pricing and diesel investments. 

“The sale of crude and the production of crude is being reduced,” Lombardi said. “So you’re starting to see changes in that – areas that are heavily invested in crude production in California will be hurt, but that’s already kind of going on.”

Crude is a dark oil consisting mainly of hydrocarbons, according to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary.

While he says employees in the sector are at risk of losing their jobs, new jobs including truck design, manufacturing and infrastructure are being created to support these new zero-emission electric trucks, it’s only a matter of where these industries will reside.

“If it happens in California, it will lead to a lot of new jobs in California, but if it happens in other states, then those other regions will benefit more in terms of jobs,” Lombardi said. “My guess is some of it will be a mix.

Rampinii said truck drivers and trucking companies should not be surprised by this vote because California has been heading in this forward-thinking direction for years.

“We are technology adopters in the state and we’re often sort of the first ones.” she said. “We help bring down the price of certain technology for others and so I think this kind of ruling is basically sending a signal to the market to start investing in zero- emission trucks, heavy duty trucks, big-rigs.”

In conjunction with California’s greenhouse gas reduction and zero-emission programs, she said the implementation of electric big-rigs by 2042 is feasible.

“This isn’t from one day to the next kind of thing, this has been years in the making, to try to get to our eventual goals of emission reductions, so I don’t think this is too soon,” Rampini said. 

Mechanical Engineering junior Rahul Shetty is the chassis lead for Spartan Racing, SJSU’s Formula SAE team.

A chassis lead designs the chassis, the framework or underpart of an automobile or other motor vehicle, according to Webster’s Dictionary.

“This year we made the choice to switch to all electric as it’s something that we found was a more feasible task to do,” he said. “It’s kind of the way the industry is leading.”