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CARB zero-emission mandate risks emergency readiness

April 11, 2026

As the California Air Resources Board (CARB) considers amendments to its Advanced Clean Fleets Zero Emission Vehicle regulation over the next week and a half, it must exempt a broader range of emergency vehicles. Without expanded exemptions, communities throughout California may be unable to respond adequately to emergencies — especially when the power is out.

This puts lives and property at tremendous risk.

I’ve worked at the Olivenhain Municipal Water District for over 29 years, overseeing emergency responses to hundreds of leaks, outages, earthquakes and fires. According to the most recent CAL FIRE map, roughly 70% of our service area is high risk. During emergencies, our responsibility is to keep water flowing to customers and firefighters for the duration of the event. Yet when residents evacuate, water continues running through melted fixtures in destroyed homes — as we saw in the Palisades fires — draining the system. Our staff deploys during fires to shut off meters so water pressure is maintained for firefighting.

Our water operators deploy across our 48-square-mile service area. In addition to turning off meters, they manually operate valves, adjust flow, switch water sources and fuel standby generators to keep pump stations operating. Each of these tasks requires reliable vehicles that can travel long distances, remain ready at a moment’s notice and operate continuously.

The current CARB proposal places an artificial cap on resiliency: No more than 25% of our fleet could be exempt from conversion to zero-emission vehicles. This dangerous cap ignores the realities we face. Emergencies don’t wait for regulations, and they don’t scale themselves to fit an arbitrary percentage. Reducing our usable emergency vehicles by 75% would endanger the community we serve. California has already experienced devastating wildfires and extreme weather — common sense tells us that constraints like this could magnify future disasters dramatically.

Local agencies cannot have their ability to respond capped, especially when major incidents require regionwide support. Fire trucks, ambulances and police vehicles are exempt, but the support vehicles that enable emergency response — such as trucks that tow fuel to water pumps — are not.

It’s hard to fight fires without water.

There are currently no zero-emission alternatives available that can provide the level of immediate readiness and operational duration the gasoline-powered vehicles offer, especially when the power is shut off.

SDG&E shuts down power in our service area during red flag events. In January 2025 alone we received seven public safety power shutoffs. In high-stakes emergencies, we can’t afford to be limited by range, charging access or grid reliability. We need vehicles immediately available that can operate around the clock for days on end to keep the water flowing. I shudder to think what would be lost in terms of life and property if we were hindered in our emergency response.

Our agency takes its environmental footprint seriously. We purchase 100% of our power from 3Phase Renewables as renewable energy and we support California’s climate and carbon reduction goals. But we cannot leave our communities defenseless against the very climate catastrophes we’re striving to mitigate. We’re not asking for the zero-emission rules to be revoked. We simply need the flexibility that comes from including support vehicles needed for emergencies in CARB’s zero-emission rule exclusions.

The threat to lives and property is real. I’ve experienced it firsthand. In 2007, our district experienced fires that lasted a week. Power was out immediately, and more than 20% of our service area burned. We all witnessed it in Los Angeles last January, and we will see it again. Whether it happens in my town or yours, it will be our disaster service workers who will cross the barricades to protect our homes and families.

That’s why first responders support this call for flexibility. That’s why in a September 2025 poll by Probolsky Research more than 75% of California voters also support this, with strong bipartisan support.

The California Air Resources Board has opened a 15-day comment period on its Advanced Clean Fleets regulations requiring zero-emission vehicles that ends April 17. All Californians should call on CARB by visiting its rulemaking page to prioritize the safety of our residents and public servants before it costs lives in our community. We need vehicles that can adequately support emergency response. It’s the right thing to do, and it’s what the citizens want.

Kimberly Thorner is general manager of Olivenhain Municipal Water District.

Orange County Register

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CARB zero-emission mandate risks emergency readiness

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