Albany -- Starting January 2025, heavy duty truck manufacturers in New York State will be required to sell a percentage of zero-emission vehicles.

The "Advanced Clean Trucks" rule is a part of a Multi-State ZEV Memorandum of Understanding signed on by New York State in 2020, joining California, New Jersey, Washington and Oregon at the time. Manufacturers would be required to sell a percentage of ZEVs in model year 2025, with that percentage increase through 2035.

While those parameters will stay in place, the DEC is now proposing an amendment to push back compliance determination until March 31, 2029. Within that amendment, the DEC would not be able to enforce violations of model year 2025 requirements until March 31st, 2029.

"So one of the primary items that we heard about was the compliance timeline, and what we are doing to resolve some of those issues is looking at a three-year compliance timeline for the industry to adapt, and that's where we will extend out that timeframe to 2029 in order to provide that greater flexibility for engine manufacturers to come into compliance program," DEC Interim Commissioner Sean Mahar says. "Hearing directly from engine manufacturers and the industry overall, how they project out their build-out scenarios and timelines for development of these engines and, you know, electrification networks, this was a component that they brought to us. And it's something where we worked with the other states to look at that flexibility that we could provide. So, it was really just hearing from the industry and looking at the regulation still driving the core of the program forward, but looking at their lens and viewing it through their lens to make sure that the timelines that we have are implementable by them. And that's where we're really what drove that extension to 2029 for part of the program."

The Department says this would give manufacturers more time in case they don't hit the percentage of ZEVs sold within a model year. Right now, if a manufacturer did not hit the goal in 2025, they'd need to make up that deficit in 2026.

The DEC says they will also exercise discretion regarding zero-emission sales requirements for snow plowing and street cleaning by State and other local agencies.

In recent days and weeks, NYS Republican Senators along with the Truckers Association of New York have called on the State for an extended timeline for these regulations.