California has decided to abandon its groundbreaking regulations phasing out diesel trucks and requiring cleaner locomotives because the incoming Trump administration is unlikely to allow the state to implement them.

State officials have long considered the rules regulating diesel vehicles essential to cleaning up California’s severe air pollution and combating climate change.

The withdrawal comes after the Biden administration recently approved the California Air Resources Board’s mandate phasing out new gas-powered cars by 2035, but had not yet approved other waivers for four diesel vehicle standards that the state has adopted.

President-elect Donald J. Trump has threatened to revoke or challenge all zero-emission vehicle rules and California’s other clean-air standards. By withdrawing its requests for US Environmental Protection Agency approval, the Newsom administration is signaling a dramatic step back as the state recalibrates in anticipation of the new Trump era.

Environmentalists said the move puts communities at risk and dismantles key programs.

“To meet basic standards for healthy air, California has to shift to zero-emissions trucks and trains in the coming years. Diesel is one of the most dangerous kinds of air pollution for human health, and California’s diesel problem is big enough to cast its own shadow,” said Paul Cort, director of the group Earthjustice’s Right To Zero campaign.

Trucking companies sued the state to stop the measure, saying electric and hydrogen big rigs are not practical for long-haul uses and that it would destroy the state’s economy.

Toyota divison fined $1.6 billion

A Toyota division that manufactures trucks will pay more than $1.6 billion and plead guilty to violations related to the submission of false and fraudulent engine emission testing and fuel consumption data to regulators and the illicit smuggling of engines into the United States.

Hino Motors, a subsidiary of the Toyota, first acknowledged in 2022 that it has systematically falsified emissions data dating back as far as 2003.

That was part of a broader scandal involving emissions tests that ensnared other automakers as well.

The Justice Department said that Hino’s unlawful conduct allowed it to improperly secure approvals to import and sell, and cause to be imported and sold, more than 110,000 diesel engines in the U.S. from 2010 to 2022. The engines were primarily installed in heavy-duty trucks made and sold by Hino nationwide.

Hino Motors Ltd. has agreed to plead guilty to engaging in a multi-year criminal conspiracy. The plea agreement, which is subject to court approval, requires the company to pay a criminal fine of $521.76 million, serve a five-year term of probation — during which it will be prohibited from importing any diesel engines it has made into the U.S. — and implement a comprehensive compliance and ethics program and reporting structure.

Transportation sues, fines airlines

The Transportation Department is stepping up enforcement of persistent flight delays with a lawsuit against Southwest Airlines and a fine against Frontier Airlines.

The agency said the U.S. District Court lawsuit it filed in California on Wednesday alleges that Southwest illegally operated chronically delayed flights and disrupted passengers’ travel plans. It says it’s seeking “maximum civil penalties.”

“Airlines have a legal obligation to ensure that their flight schedules provide travelers with realistic departure and arrival times,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement.

The Transportation Department said its investigation found that Dallas-based Southwest operated two chronically delayed flights – one between Chicago Midway International Airport and Oakland, California, and another between Baltimore, Maryland and Cleveland, Ohio.

Both flights were chronically delayed for five straight months and together resulted in 180 flight disruptions for passengers between April and August 2022, the agency said.

The department fineds Frontier Airlines $650,000 in civil penalties with $325,000 to be paid to the U.S. Treasury and the remaining $325,000 to be suspended if the carrier does not operate any chronically delayed flights in the next three years.

Compiled from CalMatters and Associated Press reports.