Trucks line up to enter a Port of Oakland shipping terminal in 2021 in Oakland, Calif. Noah Berger/Associated Press file

Some of the largest manufacturers of heavy trucks and engines in the country have agreed to accept a California plan to ban sales of new diesel big rigs by 2036 under a deal aimed in part at thwarting potential litigation and maintaining a single national standard for truck pollution rules.

The deal averts a costly court battle with the biggest industry players and eases the transition to clean electric commercial trucks in California, the largest market in the country, and potentially other states. The agreement covers manufacturers including industry giants such as Ford, General Motors, Daimler, and Cummins, as well as the Truck and Engine Manufacturers Association, an industry group. All are agreeing to implement the California plan regardless of how it may fare in the courts.

The coalition, known as the Clean Truck Partnership, was born out of more than three months of negotiations between the industry and the California Air Resources Board, which has been pushing new rules to lead the country on cleaning up heavy trucks. California Gov. Gavin Newsom heralded the deal as a major step toward reducing air pollution and emissions that warm the planet.

“California has shown the world what real climate action looks like, and we are raising the bar yet again,” Newsom said in a statement. “Today, truck manufacturers join our urgent efforts to slash air pollution, showing the rest of the country that we can both cut dangerous pollution and build the economy of the future.”

A truck departs from a Port of Oakland shipping terminal on Nov. 10, 2021, in Oakland, Calif. Noah Berger/Associated Press file

Diesel-powered commercial trucks are a major source of air pollution nationwide, in particular affecting people living near ports, warehouses, and other facilities involved in intensive shipments of goods. In California, heavy-duty trucks account for nearly a third of nitrogen oxide pollution and more than a quarter of fine particle pollution in the state, according to the California Air Resources Board.

Both of these pollutants are linked to asthma, other respiratory illnesses, and premature death. Black and Latino people constitute a notable proportion of California residents living near the state’s ports – which are among the busiest in the country – and are vulnerable, state officials said. The deal could have broader implications. Several other states often follow the clean air rules of California, and because of its size, automakers often produce cars for sale nationwide to meet California standards. That has helped make California a trendsetter in reducing the air pollution emitted by cars and trucks for decades.

Eight states have adopted a precursor to the California plan, accounting for about 25 percent of the American truck market. The states that regularly adopt California regulations were briefed on the new deal at the end of the negotiations. The manufacturers said they are committed to switching to big rigs that produce no emissions, and they touted provisions to harmonize California rules with a recent proposal by the Environmental Protection Agency to limit nitrogen oxide emissions.

The industry for years has tried to make the rules set in Washington and Sacramento as near-identical as possible. That includes a 2019 deal the California Air Resources Board struck with several makers of passenger cars to meet stricter state rules, undercutting a Trump administration plan to relax federal gas-mileage standards.

Recently, however, the industry had been fighting attempts by California to reduce pollution from and ultimately phase out diesel-powered trucks. As part of the deal, California will adopt some of the less stringent federal regulations the EPA enacted in December, including technical standards that would make it easier for trucks to comply at slightly lower pollution rates.

“Automakers need harmonization between programs to help meet our shared goal of lowering emissions,” Cynthia Williams, global director of sustainability at Ford, said in a statement. That “will help us get more clean trucks on the road across the country.”

The association and Ford began negotiations with California regulators earlier this year when it became clear that the EPA intended to grant California “waivers” to enforce environmental rules that are significantly tougher than federal regulations. Sacramento and Washington had never before diverged on their standards for diesel big rigs, said Jed Mandel, president of the Truck and Engine Manufacturers Association.

California officials led by Steven Cliff, who until last summer had served as the head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, began using that divergence to create pressure for tougher nationwide standards. The California Air Resources Board proposed stricter pollution limits for heavy-duty vehicles, such as delivery vans, garbage trucks, and 18-wheelers, to begin with, the 2024 model year, three years ahead of the administration’s latest regulations.

Mandel said manufacturers are investing billions of dollars to develop zero-emission vehicles for the American trucking industry. Volvo and Daimler are among them, with battery-powered trucks for sale in the United States, and plans to develop hydrogen fuel-cell trucks that can travel longer distances over the next several years. Some electric semi-tractors are coming out with more than 250 miles of range, with Tesla promoting a video of one of theirs pulling a load over a mountain.

With those manufacturers now saying they can deliver zero emissions by the next decade, the EPA should be factoring in that recent progress to justify ratcheting up federal mandates, said Craig Segall, who oversees policy at Evergreen Action, a climate advocacy group. Segall had worked at the California Air Resources Board helping to negotiate this deal until this spring when he joined Evergreen Action to advocate for the national adoption of clean truck mandates. “Now that trucks are moving to zero” emissions, there is “no reason to set” a weaker standard for them, he said. “The manufacturers themselves are ahead of where the administration is.”

The Biden administration did, at the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Egypt last year, join a group with 26 other countries committed to working toward 100 percent zero-emissions new truck and bus sales by 2040. But Biden administration officials declined to say how the new deal might affect their plans for fulfilling that commitment. “EPA welcomes this positive development and looks forward to reviewing the details of this agreement,” agency spokesman Tim Carroll said in an email.

Truckmakers said they are committed to a zero-emissions fleet and their technology already supports it. But to support a nationwide mandate, manufacturers need to see more federal support for electric charging stations and hydrogen systems to build out an alternative to the existing diesel network, said Mandel, the trade association leader. “The technology exists today, but way beyond our control is the infrastructure needed to support it,” he said. “And without that, our customers won’t buy these trucks.”