| By Ben Elgin and Cailley LaPara Two years ago, Rudy Diaz made a gutsy bet. The 45-year-old owner of Hight Logistics, a trucking company that hauls containers from the bustling ports around Los Angeles, began adding some of the country’s first electric heavy-duty trucks to his fleet. One rolls by on an overcast morning earlier this month, eerily silent except for its large tires crunching on the asphalt. “There’s no fumes, there’s no noise,” enthuses Diaz, who now boasts 20 electric trucks among his fleet of 75 tractor trailers. Efforts like Diaz’s were supposed to quickly become the norm for operators of the nation’s heavy-duty fleets, including long-haul truckers traversing multiple states and drayage firms carrying containers from ocean ports. California enacted a rule in 2020, which has since been adopted by 10 other states, requiring truck makers to sell an increasing portion of emission-free models, including for the largest semi-trucks. California soon followed with another regulation requiring fleet owners to buy more zero-emission trucks. Drayage companies like Hight Logistics faced the most aggressive timeline: They would need to be 100% emission-free by 2035.  Electric trucks at a WattEV charging location in Long Beach. Photographer: Alex Welsh/Bloomberg Meanwhile, the federal government last year tightened tailpipe requirements for heavy-duty vehicles, which would effectively force truck manufacturers like Daimler Truck AG and Volvo AB to produce dramatically more electric trucks. Now these rules are teetering. President Donald Trump, who is taking aim at California’s more stringent vehicle requirements, is also expected to go after the federal tailpipe rules. Meanwhile, 19 states, all of which voted for Trump in the most recent election, filed a legal challenge against California’s requirements for truck manufacturers. And in January, the California Air Resources Board effectively gutted its rule that would push fleet owners like Diaz into electric trucks after it became apparent former President Joe Biden wouldn’t grant the required approval before leaving office. The darkening landscape for such rules is a blow to businesses that have poured gobs of money and years of toil into California’s expected clean-energy transition for heavy-duty trucks. “It’s a setback,” says Salim Youssefzadeh, the chief executive officer of WattEV, which has spent tens of millions of dollars building charging stations for trucks across California. “That’s probably going to delay some of these larger fleets from going electric.”  Salim Youssefzadeh of WattEV, which has spent tens of millions building chargers. Photographer: Alex Welsh/Bloomberg It’s also sapping enthusiasm among investors who previously put much-needed capital into these efforts. “We’re much more cautious than we were a year ago, with these changes,” says R. Andrew de Pass, head of renewable and sustainable investments at Vitol Inc., a larger energy trader. Any slowdown will hinder efforts to clean up one of the economy’s dirtiest sectors. Commercial vehicles are expected to surpass passenger cars as the planet’s leading source of transportation emissions by 2039, according to research firm BloombergNEF. In California, heavy-duty trucks contribute about 7% of the state’s heat-trapping emissions. These trucks run mostly on diesel, which also emits harmful particulates that heighten risks for cancer and asthma near ports and along busy shipping corridors. The California Air Resources Board, which oversees the state’s clean-truck rules, says it remains committed to slashing pollution from trucks and is considering other courses of action. “We will explore all viable options to reduce harmful emissions…and safeguard our environment,” says a spokesperson for the agency.  EV trucks at the Hight Logistics’ trucking facility. Photographer: Alex Welsh/Bloomberg Some countries are figuring out how to do this much faster. While there are tens of thousands of small electric delivery vans plying the roads of the US, there were just over 3,000 electric heavy-duty trucks as of the middle of last year, according to CALSTART, a nonprofit focused on clean transportation. China now adds that many every 9 days, thanks to its cheaper batteries and lucrative incentives. “Policy incentives matter,” says Maynie Yang, a BloombergNEF analyst. By pulling back support at this early stage, the US will stall its development of an EV supply chain and ensure its trucks remain more expensive, she says. Where do other major trucking companies stand on electrification? Read the full story on Bloomberg.com. | 
