The U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) has announced a virtual public hearing and public comment period for California’s Advanced Clean Fleets (ACF) waiver and authorization request.  

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) submitted a waiver request to the Clean Air Act for the ACF rule on November 15, 2023. The ACF rule requires affected state and local governmental fleets, drayage truck fleets, federal governmental agency fleets, and large commercial fleets to incorporate zero-emission on-road medium and heavy-duty vehicles and light-duty package delivery vehicles into their fleets, beginning in 2024. The ACF rule additionally requires that all new California medium-and heavy-duty vehicles sales be zero-emission vehicles starting in 2036. 

The US EPA will hold the virtual public hearing on August 14, 2024, at 10 am Eastern Daylight Time. Interested parties may present testimony at the public hearing and must register no later than August 7 to do so.  

Written public comments are also being accepted on or before September 16, 2024. Comments may be submitted through the following methods: 

1.      Federal eRulemaking Portal: https://www.regulations.gov/, which is the preferred method.

2.      Email at a-and-r-docket@epa.gov. 

3.      Mail or hand deliver comments to the EPA Docket Center. 

More information on CARB’s ACF waiver request and comment process can be found here.