/>iOn August 12, 2025, the Federal Trade Commission announced that it had “closed its investigation into whether several truck and engine manufacturers and their trade association violated the antitrust laws by entering the ‘Clean Truck Partnership’ with the California Air Resources Board.” The investigation was closed because the relevant truck manufacturers effectively agreed to withdraw from and not comply with California's Clean Truck Partnership--and, moreover, entered into written commitments “not to enter an agreement with any U.S. state regulator or U.S. state government that fixes output or emissions levels and permits cross-enforcement by competitors.” In other words, the Trump Administration has not only dismantled the Clean Truck Partnership, but compelled the relevant companies to agree not to enter into a similar agreement in the future.
So, what was the Clean Truck Partnership? In essence, it was an agreement among certain truck manufacturers--comprising nearly the entirety of the market--to “abide by a series of [California Air Resources Board] regulations limiting truck sales and greenhouse gas emissions,” particularly by compelling “manufacturers to produce ‘zero emissions’ engines [e.g., electric] rather than internal combustion engines.” The Trump Administration raised a number of concerns with this arrangement, including the issues that “one truck manufacturer [could] enforc[e] its restrictions against a competing truck manufacturer” and that “[t]he agreement locked in place terms with limited political accountability and opportunity for elected officials to modify them.” And these legal arguments were ultimately successful, as demonstrated by the dismantling of the Clean Truck Partnership.
This action by the FTC is part of a broader effort by the Trump Administration to overturn environmental regulations enacted by Democratic governments (whether state or federal), and generally to pursue a rollback of various ESG initiatives, especially those concerned with climate change. It also reflects the tactical choice by the Trump Administration, and Republican state governments across the United States, to employ antitrust law as a means to attack various agreements among industry participants to adopt collective solutions to address climate change. Their success here will likely prompt additional efforts along the same lines.
Today, the Federal Trade Commission closed its investigation into whether several truck and engine manufacturers and their trade association violated the antitrust laws by entering the “Clean Truck Partnership” with the California Air Resources Board (CARB). The Commission has determined that written commitments made by the manufacturers to the Commission, backed by reporting and disclosure obligations, have accomplished the objectives of this investigation.
