Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers spoke to Fox Business about his antitrust lawsuit against the four major truck manufacturers that are cooperating in the push for electric trucks.
Nebraska’s attorney general is fighting what he calls a “three-pronged attack” from truck manufacturers, California regulators and the Biden administration to force diesel engines in favor of electric trucks.
Attorney General Mike Hilgers this week filed a lawsuit against four of the nation’s largest heavy-duty trucking companies, alleging an “industry-wide” conspiracy with California environmental officials to phase out medium- and heavy-duty trucks that use gasoline. .
The lawsuit filed in state court names Daimler; Navistar International, Volkswagen’s commercial truck division, Traton; Paccar; Volvo Group North America; and the industry trade group, the Association of Truck and Engine Manufacturers, as defendants.
| A ticker | Security | Finally | Change | change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DTRUY | DAIMLER TRUCK HOLDING AG | 19.25 | +0.23 |
+1.18% |
| PCAR | Company PACCAR INC. | 114.75 | +0.70 |
+0.61% |
| A TRATY | TRATON SE | 31.07 | -1.46 |
-4.49% |
| VLVLY | VOLVO AB | 24.67 | +0.29 |
+1.19% |
Hilgers told Fox Business that the four companies have publicly admitted that they are “collusive in a classic form of dishonesty.”
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Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers has filed an antitrust lawsuit against heavy-duty truck manufacturers that he says conspired to phase out diesel engines in favor of electric vehicles. (Fox News Digital / Getty Images)
He suspects that their aim is to “restrict – eventually completely – the exit of gas-powered cars and move us away from those cars towards an electric future in an unlikely or very unlikely future, but which will also lead to higher costs for companies and consumers in the end.”
As evidence, the lawsuit points to a July 2023 agreement reached between the California Air Resources Board (CARB), major truck manufacturers and the Clean Truck Partnership, which gave manufacturers more flexibility to meet the state’s stricter emissions standards.
The companies are committed to adopting standards that “will require the sale and adoption of zero-emission technology, regardless of whether any other entity challenges California’s authority to set stricter emissions standards under the Federal Clean Air Act,” according to CARB. The board agreed to give these companies a “reasonable lead time” to meet their needs before imposing new rules.
CARB, Navistar, Volvo Group North America and Paccar declined to comment.
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Hilgers said a mandatory switch to electric semitrucks would raise costs for consumers and put trucking companies out of business. (Andreas Gebert/Bloomberg via Getty Images/Getty Images)
Hilgers described the agreement as an open acceptance of agreements to phase out gas-powered vehicles.
“What they want to do is reduce the production of gas and diesel trucks to zero overnight,” he said, adding that the parties involved want to “push for a future based on gas without a vote of the people. , without an act of Congress, without a free market.”
“That is ultimately a classic antitrust violation.”
Nebraska wants the Clean Truck Partnership agreement terminated.
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California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks at a press conference. (Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images/Getty Images)
In March 2023, the US Environmental Protection Agency approved California plans to require an increasing number of zero-emission heavy-duty trucks. California is still awaiting EPA approval of its Advanced Clean Fleets rules regarding the use of zero-emission medium-duty and heavy-duty vehicles and small package delivery vehicles. The law would require manufacturers to make only zero-emission medium- and heavy-duty trucks starting in 2036.
In May, Nebraska and 16 other states sued CARB over its clean shipping law. Hilgers said switching to zero-emissions vehicles would be a “massive change in our system” that would lead to higher prices, displace many transportation companies and add “a huge electric load to an already strained electric grid.” He also suggested that the transition may not happen.
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California Gov. Gavin Newsom said last year that half of all heavy-duty trucks sold in the Golden State will be electric by 2035. .
While the EPA under the Biden administration has done well on California programs, Hilgers told FOX Business that he expects the incoming Trump administration “will be more common sense.”
Reuters contributed to this report.
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