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Pushing back on Air Resources Board mandates that will otherwise soon require vehicle clean-air inspections up to four times a year, Sen. Megan Dahle has introduced legislation to streamline testing requirements for heavy trucks, reducing the burden of compliance and downtime for vehicles, which fall especially hard on owners in rural communities.
Senate Bill 1064 would not eliminate the testing requirements, but it would reduce the frequency to every other year – similar to smog checks for passenger vehicles. Currently, the California Air Resources Board’s Clean Truck Check requires farm trucks and private recreational vehicles to be tested every year, while other commercial vehicles must be tested twice a year, which will shift to four times a year starting in 2027.
“In 2019, before I was elected to the Assembly, the Legislature passed a law requiring regular checks for heavy-duty vehicles – mainly large diesel trucks,” Dahle said. “Californians support cleaner air, but requiring smog checks four times a year is beyond all reason.”
California’s farmers and small businesses operate under heavy regulations and high costs, and the additional burden of these accelerating new requirements is the last thing they need.
“As is often the case, this mandate’s weight will fall heaviest on small businesses and independent operators, especially in rural communities, who face the extra cost of getting to urban centers for testing,” Dahle said. “That means paying a driver and burning expensive diesel fuel just to run one more redundant test.”
SB 1064 has been referred to the Senate Committees on Environmental Quality and Transportation and will be heard later this spring.