Contributor: Truck makers breaking emissions deal are hurting themselves - and all Californians

"In 2023, truck manufacturers struck a deal with the California Air Resources Board to drastically reduce emissions and invest in electric trucks. This summer, however, several of the companies - Daimler Truck, Volvo Group, Paccar and Traton - backed out of the partnership and sued California, with support from the Trump administration. Now fossil-fuel-aligned corporations are leveraging political connections to weaken oversight, erode environmental protections and entrench their dominance."

"The 2023 deal, known as the Clean Truck Partnership, was rooted in trust and a shared interest in predictable, stable rules during the transition away from fossil fuels. It wasn't a regulation or a law; it was a collaboration - an experiment in handshake agreements that now looks like a cautionary tale for regulators and communities everywhere: Corporations can walk away from deals like this the moment political winds shift or the quarterly earnings dip."

"The manufacturers' gratuitous lawsuit comes alongside a proposed of the Environmental Protection Agency's greenhouse gas standards and a surprise Federal Trade Commission move to condemn the partnership. The commission issued a statement closing an investigation it never publicly announced, after the companies sent letters playing victim. Is it any surprise that Trump's federal lawyers jumped in days later to sue California along with the truck makers?"

Truck manufacturers struck the 2023 Clean Truck Partnership with the California Air Resources Board to cut emissions and invest in electric trucks. Several manufacturers—Daimler Truck, Volvo Group, Paccar and Traton—later withdrew, sued California, and secured support from the Trump administration. Fossil-fuel-aligned corporations used political connections to weaken oversight, erode environmental protections and entrench market dominance. The manufacturers' actions capitalize on shifting federal leadership and inject instability into markets they had promised to stabilize. The partnership functioned as a collaboration built on trust rather than regulation, and its collapse demonstrates that corporations can abandon voluntary agreements when political or financial incentives change.

Read at Los Angeles Times