Senate legislation seeks to reform CARB to streamline approvals, reduce costs and ensure emissions-compliant aftermarket products reach consumers faster
Washington, D.C.—The Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) is sponsoring legislation to provide more certainty in the process by which the California Air Resources Board (CARB) approves aftermarket emissions products seeking clearance to be sold in the state.
Senate Bill 1069, authored by Sen. Tim Grayson, D-Concord, would provide specific timelines to which CARB must adhere when manufacturers navigate the board’s Executive Order (EO) process. EOs for aftermarket parts ensure companies are in compliance with CARB emissions standards and serve to greenlight the manufacturing, sale or installation of an aftermarket product in California.
Under the bill, companies would be refunded a portion of the application costs incurred if the time it takes to receive an EO becomes unreasonable.
The application to receive a CARB EO was once free, with fees later added to help speed the process and enable the hiring of staff who could facilitate the review of these applications. But despite this administrative support provided via the monetary investment of applicants, SEMA stated in a news release that the process continues to lag and deprive well-meaning companies of their opportunity to reach the California market with their innovative, emissions-compliant products.
According to SEMA research, it currently can take CARB 12-18 months to approve EOs and sometimes up to two years. Businesses, the association said, cannot afford to wait that long to bring products to market.
The legislation will provide the following reforms:
- After companies submit their applications for an EO, CARB would have 30 days to state whether the application is in order, and then 60 more days to approve or deny the application.
- If an application is denied, CARB is to provide the applicant a list of reasons for the denial; applicants will then have a 30-day “cure” period to keep an application on track.
- If CARB fails to adhere to this reasonable timeline, applicants are entitled to a 50% refund of their fees.
Fees for CARB EOs can reach thousands of dollars. Currently, those fees are:
- $500 for companies with fewer than 100 employees, and
- $1,000 for companies with 100 or more employees.
Analysis conducted for 2025 by the SEMA Garage shows that aftermarket companies pay $1,600-$3,200 per product for which they seek an EO, based on an average of 3.2 application breakouts, which result in three distinct charges for the same product.
In some examples, SEMA noted that there are enough breakouts to cost companies well beyond $20,000 for a single product. Such cases force companies to make difficult decisions over whether to even apply for coverage on all their products.
“This is a necessary bill for lawmakers to prove to their constituents that they’re serious about clean air in California and providing small businesses with a pathway to thrive,” stated SEMA CEO Mike Spagnola in the news release. “We have known for a long time that the CARB EO process is in sore need of reform; it is slow, costly, and wrought with administrative delays that are a disservice to companies and consumers. We thank Senator Grayson for authoring this bill.”
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