Defending Progress and Preparing for What’s Next in Clean Transportation Policy

Reflections on the policy landscape shaping the road to 2026

Now that 2025 has come to a close, the CALSTART Policy Team is reflecting on 12 months of focused and sustained advocacy in the face of significant political headwinds. Last year’s clean transportation policy landscape constantly evolved — and became increasingly challenging — but our collective effort, strengthened by our more than 200 member companies and partners, secured crucial wins and defended hard-won progress. 

As we lay the groundwork for greater progress in 2026, we’re taking a moment to look back at the federal, state, and utility policy moments in which we protected momentum and positioned the market to move forward.  

Federal Policy: Strategic Defense and Building the Next Consensus 

With the 119th Congress focused on fiscal cuts — often placing clean transportation programs squarely in the crosshairs — our focus in Washington this past year was clear: defend the foundational, market-shaping programs accelerating the clean transportation market while helping foster long-term stakeholder alignment. 

In the sweeping July reconciliation package, CALSTART helped prevent language that would have repealed the Section 45X Advanced Manufacturing Tax Credit and the Clean Ports Program, two initiatives playing an outsized role in accelerating domestic manufacturing and reducing pollution at our nation’s ports. Successfully defending these provisions was a major win for clean transportation manufacturers, fleets, and communities alike. 

At the same time, through sustained engagement with the current administration and key partners, we worked to ensure that funding awards under the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Program and the Low- or No-Emission Grant Program moved forward. 

California Policy: Leading With Action and Investment 

While the federal landscape largely required defensive engagement, California continued to demonstrate leadership by advancing policies that secured long-term funding, mandated local planning, and reaffirmed the state’s commitment to a zero-emission future. 

At the end of 2025, CALSTART led a delegation of clean transportation leaders to urge lawmakers to reauthorize California’s Cap-and-Trade program, now known as Cap-and-Invest. This successful effort ensures the continued flow of proceeds to the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF), sustaining critical zero-emission vehicle incentives and agency programs across the state.  

CALSTART also played a key role in advancing Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur’s Local Electrification Planning Act (AB 39). This landmark law requires cities and counties to develop comprehensive plans to expand electric vehicle charging, decarbonize buildings, and integrate renewable energy, all while prioritizing benefits for low-income and disadvantaged communities. 

State Policy Beyond California: Advancing Progress in a Changed Landscape 

Last year was expected to be a major expansion year for state clean vehicle standards, with additional states preparing to adopt or implement rules like Advanced Clean Trucks, Advanced Clean Cars II, and the Heavy-Duty Omnibus. Instead, the policy landscape shifted dramatically.  

Last spring, Congress used the Congressional Review Act to overturn EPA approvals of specific Clean Air Act preemption waivers for California’s vehicle standards, disrupting a regulatory pathway the state has relied on for more than 50 years. In the post-Review Act environment, what was a relatively straightforward way for states to accelerate the zero-emission transition now requires more creative and adaptive approaches.  

In response, CALSTART quickly pivoted to helping states navigate this new reality, offering data-driven analysis, market context, and technical support to identify viable paths forward on clean transportation deployment. Leveraging tools such as the ZET Ahead Dashboard, the Zeroing In on Zero-Emission Trucks report, and Phasing in U.S. Charging Infrastructure, we partnered with state leaders and stakeholders to support continued progress in a significantly changed policy environment, focusing on practical pathways that could sustain deployment and market momentum despite uncertainty.  

Together, these efforts helped counter disinformation, reinforce real-world market readiness, and support states as they continued advancing clean transportation progress in a significantly changed policy environment.    

Utility Policy: Building the Grid for the Transition

Just as diesel trucks depend on fossil fuels, electric trucks depend on access to sufficient, affordable electricity. Utility policy therefore remains central to making electrification work at scale. 

In 2025, CALSTART focused on ensuring the grid was planned, upgraded, and priced to support medium- and heavy-duty electrification. In California, we helped shape a first-of-its-kind proactive planning framework to ensure grid infrastructure is ready before fleets need it. We advocated for freight electrification to be prioritized alongside data centers, for the use of designated “hot spots,” and for more forward-looking, data-driven utility planning.   

We also advanced recommendations to streamline energization processes, many of which were incorporated into a recent Proposed Decision by the California Public Utilities Commission. These improvements give fleets earlier and more-reliable estimates of power availability and support flexible service connections as bridge-to-wires solutions when full energization timelines are extended.  

CALSTART also advanced favorable rate design proposals for medium- and heavy-duty fleet customers in Southern California Edison’s general rate case. Beyond California, we supported the New York Public Service Commission in approving essential grid upgrades to advance freight electrification statewide.  

Looking Ahead to 2026: Federal, State, and Utility Priorities 

2025 was defined by strategic defense, disciplined advocacy, and critical groundwork. While progress was often about holding the line rather than breaking new ground, CALSTART’s policy efforts ensured that momentum was not lost and that the clean transportation market was positioned to move forward.  

Looking ahead to 2026, CALSTART’s top policy priority is sustaining and accelerating momentum in California, where state leadership, investment decisions, and regulatory direction will continue to shape clean transportation markets nationwide. A complex political, fiscal, and leadership transition will define the upcoming year, making it essential to defend core programs, secure continued investment through the GGRF, and position California to maintain its leadership while accelerating the next phase of zero-emission vehicle deployment and investment.  

California is entering the second year of a 2-year legislative session, one that will be shaped by significant political change. Governor Gavin Newsom will be terming out, setting the stage for a highly competitive gubernational cycle that will coincide with elections for all even-numbered State Senate districts, the full State Assembly, multiple statewide offices, and federal seats; additionally, Senator Monique Limón was selected to serve as the next President Pro Tempore of the legislature, shifting dynamics across the Senate. Together, these transitions in leadership and the high-profile electoral environment are likely to compress policy timelines, elevate political sensitivities around spending, and heighten focus on issues that can be clearly framed for broad voter constituencies.  

Compounding the political transition is a constrained fiscal outlook. California faces a substantial budget problem, driven by structural pressures that outpace modest revenue gains and constitutional funding requirements. CALSTART will work to secure strategic funding from the GGRF for the 2026–27 California budget, alongside commitments for a multi-year clean transportation investment plan. We will also begin exploring new sustainable revenue sources to stabilize funding beyond current GGRF revenues. 

At the same time, CALSTART is focused on advancing progress in other leading state markets, including New York, where strong demand and a renewed legislative window present opportunities to expand deployment-focused policies and programs. New York is entering the second year of its 2-year legislative session. The Clean Deliveries Act, which would establish a statewide Indirect Source Rule program, passed the Senate last year and will again be considered in 2026. In addition, NYSERDA announced that 2025 New York Truck Voucher Incentive Program funding has been fully subscribed across on-road classes, a testament to the ongoing demand for these vehicles. CALSTART will continue working with advocates and industry partners to secure Sustainable Futures funding to support the state’s ambitious electric school bus transition goal, zero-emission transit, and the expansion of medium- and heavy-duty zero-emissions investments. 

Alongside this state-centered work, we are also engaging strategically at the federal level, including with the next major transportation bill. In November, CALSTART played a leading role in drafting and recruiting signatories for a letter to Congressional leadership, signed by 90 members of Congress, expressing strong bipartisan support for continuing the innovative clean transportation programs established in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. This effort sets an early marker as surface transportation reauthorization negotiations ramp up in 2026.  

Together, our federal engagement complements CALSTART’s work with state legislatures and utility regulators across the country, reinforcing market certainty while positioning the next phase of clean transportation deployment to scale. 

We will remain vigilant in defending zero-emission vehicle and infrastructure policies while advancing next-generation approaches that sustain progress at the state level. At the same time, we’ll continue pushing for rate reforms and grid-planning improvements that make electrification practical, affordable, and scalable for all fleets nationwide.  

Thank you to our members, partners, and allies for your steadfast support. Whether you’re engaging alongside us in the policy arena or advancing clean transportation in other ways, we’re grateful to be doing this work together. Let’s make 2026 count.  

This blog reflects the collective work of CALSTART’s Policy Team, including Trisha Dello Iacono, Darryl Little Jr., Levi Kamolnick, Alissa Burger, and Alex Pfeifer-Rosenblum.