Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares urged the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to maintain its block on the California electric truck mandate created by Governor Gavin Newsom, declaring the state is “playing games with America’s livelihood.”
Miyares on Monday announced he joined a comment letter urging the EPA to maintain its federal block on California’s Advanced Clean Fleets (ACF) regulation, which mandates every major commercial trucking company either maintain an “zero-emission-vehicle” (ZEV) fleet or have a plan to retire traditional internal combustion engines in accordance with the regulation.
California’s ACF was created by a state regulatory board after Newsom signed an executive order mandating California begin moving toward electric vehicles, with the governor’s transition set to complete in 2035.
The attorney general’s office said California’s ban of internal combustion trucks on its roads “would effectively force trucking companies nationwide to retire their existing fleets just to stay operational. Given California’s critical role as a hub for international trade, the ripple effects would be nationwide, threatening to disrupt the supply chain, slow the transport of goods, and increase prices for everyday consumers.”
Miyares, in a statement, said California was “weaponizing” its resources against the rest of the country in a bid to force compliance with its environmental agenda.
“This mandate doesn’t just affect California—it weaponizes the state’s massive ports to force the entire nation to bow to an extreme environmental agenda,” Miyares stated. “California’s so-called ‘in-state’ ban is nothing more than an export of California’s economic chaos, creating real harm across American industries and raising costs for families everywhere. The federal government should not preference California to the detriment of the other 49 states.”
His office announced he was joined in the letter by attorneys general representing Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
Miyares’ statement is not the first time Virginia officials have vowed to resist California’s environmental demands, as an earlier legal opinion submitted by the attorney general allowed Governor Glenn Youngkin to declare in June that Virginia will cease complying with California’s vehicle emissions rules in 2025.
Calling California’s regulations “fundamentally wrong,” Youngkin stated, “Once again, Virginia is declaring independence –- this time from a misguided electric vehicle mandate imposed by unelected leaders nearly 3,000 miles away from the Commonwealth.”
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Jason Miyares” by Jason Miyares.
