Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers, center, announces a new antitrust lawsuit Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024, against four major semitruck manufacturers and a national trade association. Flanking him are Kent Grisham, president and CEO of the Nebraska Trucking Association, at left, and Lincoln County Commissioner Chris Bruns. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner)
LINCOLN — Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers is taking a victory lap after four major semitruck manufacturers his office sued last fall agreed this week that California-led electric vehicle standards and emissions rules are now “voided.”
Hilgers last November announced a state-level antitrust lawsuit against Daimler Truck North America, International Motors Inc. (formerly Navistar Inc.), PACCAR Inc., and Volvo Group North America, as well as the Truck and Engine Manufacturers Association. His office had targeted a joint “Clean Truck Partnership” involving the manufacturers, trade association and California regulators that required regulatory compliance “even if those mandates were unlawful.”
After manufacturers said Monday that those California rules are no longer binding, while being careful not to assume liability, Hilgers said it’s a “culmination of a multi-front war … against a destructive ideological agenda.”
“If successful, these efforts would have decimated jobs in Nebraska, cut off parts of rural [America] from [a] regular supply of goods and raised consumer prices,” Hilgers wrote this week on X, formerly Twitter. “Nebraska has been leading the fight, and we have been winning.”
The lawsuit was filed in Lincoln County District Court, in North Platte, which Hilgers described as Nebraska’s “epicenter for transportation.” The Energy Marketers of America and Renewable Fuels Nebraska had joined Hilgers in his lawsuit.
The lawsuit was the third prong in Nebraska’s fight against California-initiated “shortsighted and damaging electric-truck mandates,” the Nebraska AG’s Office said this week.
In May 2024, Hilgers challenged California’s “Advanced Clean Fleet” regulations in federal court, guidelines that had spurred the subsequent “Clean Truck Partnership” in July 2023. Hilgers and Nebraska truckers said the California regulations “reached well beyond California’s borders” and would potentially block access to California or its ports.
California state regulators agreed to repeal the “Advanced Clean Fleet” regulations this May.
Nebraska, along with 24 other states, also sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last year seeking to repeal EV mandates and regulations crafted under former President Joe Biden. President Donald Trump’s administration recently agreed to repeal those requirements.
Liane Randolph, chair of the California Air Resources Board, had praised the Clean Truck Partnership as an “unprecedented collaboration” that “marks a new era in our zero-emission future.”
“This agreement makes it clear that we have shared goals to tackle pollution and climate change and to ensure the success of the truck owners and operators who provide critical services to California’s economy,” Randolph said in a July 2023, statement.
Hilgers argued the partnership was unlawful in part because the four targeted manufacturers had secured an “oligopoly” on producing 99.9% of trucks over 33,000 pounds, including:
Cement mixers.
Dump trucks.
Fire trucks.
Fuel trucks.
Heavy semi-tractors.
Refrigerated vans.
Semi sleepers.
Tour buses.
Andrew Ferguson, chair of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, also weighed in on Nebraska’s actions this week, praising Hilgers for doing “incredible work for the people of Nebraska and the whole country.”
“Very proud to partner with him to protect competition in our markets!” Ferguson wrote on X.
Hilgers said the nation’s economy depends on diesel-powered semitrucks, which he described as critical to keeping costs low for consumers and supplying rural America.
“That industry has been under assault by California,” Hilgers said Monday. “Today’s victory ensures that the availability and costs of those trucks will be dictated by market forces, not unelected bureaucrats in another state.”
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