California Air Resources Board

I am writing on behalf of myself and countless other small business owners and independent trucking operators across California to express serious concerns regarding the State’s accelerated push toward mandatory adoption of zero-emission commercial vehicles, including diesel bans that are already destabilizing our industry.

While we understand and respect the importance of addressing environmental challenges, the current regulatory direction—especially as influenced by your executive order and upcoming public sessions responding to federal action on Clean Air Act waivers—is advancing policies that unfairly burden small businesses and family-owned trucking companies.

We are especially alarmed by the lack of practical infrastructure to support full zero-emission compliance, as well as the economic toll it is already taking on operators who cannot afford costly electric fleet conversions or wait hours at unreliable charging stations. Additionally, California’s already overtaxed power grid is ill-equipped to support large-scale commercial charging—making this a premature and damaging mandate for our essential industry.

Your administration’s decision to convene public sessions through state agencies is a step in the right direction. However, we strongly urge that these forums not be symbolic, but include true representation from small business owners, independent truckers, and those most affected by these mandates. The narrative surrounding zero-emission policies has largely excluded our lived experiences and operational realities.

These policies, as currently implemented, are dismantling generational family businesses, creating job losses, and pushing working-class Californians out of an industry they helped build. Meanwhile, large corporations with deeper pockets are consolidating more market share—creating an uneven playing field that rewards monopolies at the expense of local economies.

We respectfully request that your administration pause the implementation of any new zero-emission requirements until a more inclusive, phased, and economically viable strategy is developed—one that respects California’s environmental goals and the people and businesses that keep its economy moving.

It takes strong leadership to admit when the path forward needs recalibration. Doing what is right—not what is politically popular—requires moral courage and a commitment to serve all Californians, not just the elite or well-connected. Your allegiance, and that of your appointees, must be to the public—not former employees, lobbyists, or bureaucrats pursuing ideological agendas without understanding the consequences for real people.

We are ready to work with your office toward a smarter, more realistic transition that protects both the environment and the economic foundation of California.