Throughout 2025, the Association has worked with the California Air Resources Board and the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz) to ensure that transit agencies can successfully deploy Zero Emissions Buses while meeting Innovative Clean Transit regulation requirements. Here’s where the effort stands now.
By Arianna Smith
Managing Editor
Transit California
California transit agencies large and small are spending serious time and resources on acquiring Zero Emissions Buses (ZEBs) to meet the needs of the communities they serve – and to meet the state’s fast-approaching clean-air purchasing requirements.
For some California agencies, this effort isn’t completely new or unfamiliar: many have, for years, been updating their bus fleets to include ZEBs, investing in upgrades to supportive infrastructure, and experimenting with ZEB routes that work to provide the best service. Agencies have adopted battery-electric buses, hydrogen fuel-cell electric buses, or a mix of both.
The Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) is one such agency; OCTA began piloting ten of each type of ZEB in 2020 and 2022. Now OCTA is expanding ZEB capacity: in November 2024, the OCTA Board approved the purchase of 40 new hydrogen fuel-cell buses and 10 new battery electric buses. “I’m proud that OCTA is an industry leader in transitioning to zero-emission technology,” said OCTA Board Chair Tam T. Nguyen in November 2024, after the Board voted to approve the purchase. “And I’m glad we’re helping set the standard for a future in where our passengers can continue to count on reliable bus service while protecting our environment.”
But purchasing ZEBs comes with many challenges, including the issue that American transit bus manufacturing has not kept pace with the domestic demand for ZEBs, despite federal and state requirements for transit agencies to “Buy American.” To help address this issue, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LA Metro) is working with more than two dozen other LA County transit operators on a policy to make it easier – and less expensive – for them to pool resources and purchase ZEBs from American companies.
“It’s an opportunity to pool our purchasing power while also supporting zero emissions bus manufacturing jobs here in the US,” said Metro Board Chair and LA County Supervisor Janice Hahn. “This is the sort of creative approach we need to get all of our transit providers closer to zero emissions, clean air future.”
“This coordinated approach between Metro and the Los Angeles County Municipal Operators Association (LACMOA) will support U.S. bus manufacturing and ensure that sufficient manufacturers remain in the market to meet California’s sustainability goals,” added Metro CEO Stephanie Wiggins.
State milestones for ZEB purchases
Large transit agencies like OCTA and LA Metro have been required to begin phasing in ZEBs for two years. The first purchasing milestone to phase in ZEBs occurred in 2023, with the state requiring large transit agencies to make ZEBs 25% of their new standard bus purchases.
The next milestone is just months away: On January 1, 2026, large transit agencies will be required to make 50% of all types of new bus purchases ZEBs, while smaller agencies will be required to make 25% of their bus purchases ZEBs. Beginning in 2029, all new bus purchases by all transit agencies must be ZEBs. The scaling up of these purchases is intended to ensure that transit agencies operate only buses using zero emissions technologies by 2040.
These purchasing requirements, as well as the goal for 100% ZEB use by 2040, are much-watched components of the 2018 Innovative Clean Transit (ICT) regulation that the California Air Resources Board (CARB) approved as part of the state goal to protect public health, improve air quality, and fight climate change.
While transit agencies have worked around high purchasing costs to comply with these requirements, agencies have long feared that they would struggle to meet the approaching deadlines without dedicated funding, a forum for dialogue, or a formal set of goals and commitments from the state. To make these goals a reality, the Association and CARB worked together on a framework for dialogue; this effort was eventually blended with work by other state entities involved in ZEB deployments funding and technical support to form an interagency coalition: the ICT ZEB Task Force.
The Task Force is led by key staff from GO-Biz (Task Force Chair), CARB (co-Vice Chair) and the California State Transportation Agency (CalSTA) (co-Vice Chair). Other state agencies involved include the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), the California Transportation Commission (CTC), the California Energy Commission, and the California Public Utility Commission (CPUC). The Task Force membership also includes a representative from the California Association of Coordinated Transportation (CALACT), as well as representatives from Association member operators who serve three large transit agencies and five small transit agencies.
For more information about the development and membership of the Task Force, see Transit California’s April 2025 article.
Where the Task Force is Now
Throughout 2025, the Task Force has met quarterly while staff at the state agencies have met monthly.
The Task Force’s first meeting was held in March 2025, and the second was held on May 9 alongside the Association’s Legislative Spring Conference, where members reviewed and grouped voting results for priority areas and discussed the organization of Working Groups, including the structure, scope, deliverables, and timeline. The four distinct Working Groups are currently moving forward with four areas of priority:
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Energy Issues: This Working Group is reviewing onsite technologies including microgrids and other power generation and storage systems, policy pathways to address electricity service interruptions, ways to reduce the electricity cost of charging ZEBs, and the costs of transporting and storing hydrogen.
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Small and Rural Technical Assistance: This Working Group is reviewing new, state-based formula funding and infrastructure partnership opportunities to address the special issues that small operators and rural operators face. The Group is also scoping a technical assistance program, ZEB supply gaps, and transit agency engagement in a Caltrans scheduling software integration initiative.
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ZEB Infrastructure Models: This Working Group is prioritizing opportunities for shared refueling infrastructure, assessing the potential operational risks and liabilities of shared infrastructure, and developing long-term mitigation strategies for ZEB infrastructure.
The most recent meeting occurred on August 18, 2025, where members reviewed each Working Group’s action plan for the coming year. The Working Groups will continue to meet monthly and formulate strategies and tasks to advance objectives, per Task Force discussions and decisions. Task Force members will assess the Working Group’s progress at the next meeting later in 2025.
What happens next?
The Task Force is committed to a two-year process. During this time, members will consider Working Group recommendations and determine near-, mid- and long-term next steps necessary to advance applicable strategies.
In the meantime, CARB will release the ICT Phase 2 Comprehensive Review (Comprehensive Review) this year to assess program readiness for 2026-2028. CARB and its Comprehensive Review contractor, National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), continue to solicit input from the transit industry during the process. CARB will also provide a chance for transit agencies to review the draft report before its release. The Phase 2 Comprehensive Review is anticipated to also include the interim recommendations connecting the progress between the initial 25% ZEB purchase requirements and the ultimate 100% ZEB purchase requirements.
The ICT Phase 1 Comprehensive Review can be found here.
“Our member agencies share an important goal with state agencies: We all want to cut emissions and mitigate climate change by replacing fossil fuel buses with ZEBs,” said Michael Pimentel, Executive Director of the Association. “The Task Force is one of the main avenues through which we plan to accomplish this shared goal quickly, , safely, and with fewer financial and operational impacts to California transit agencies.”
To stay up to date on the ICT regulation, ZEB funding opportunities, and Task Force work, read and subscribe to the Association’s weekly Executive Director’s Report, Legislative Updates, and Transit California.