Agency estimates nitrogen oxide pollution would increase 11.6% by 2055
The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday proposed scaling back Biden-era rules designed to limit hazardous emissions from heavy-duty vehicles, including buses and large trucks, continuing a series of deregulatory actions by the Trump administration. As MSI previously reported, the EPA has since January proposed or finalized changes to rules on interstate air pollution, coal ash groundwater, coal wastewater, PFAS in drinking water, regional haze, refrigerant management, and ethylene oxide emissions.
The proposal would modify two provisions governing how emissions-reducing technology performs while a vehicle is in use — one related to warranties, the other to the useful life of emissions equipment. Current rules require truck engines to automatically operate at reduced power if emissions-control systems are not functioning, a feature some operators have called disruptive. The EPA proposed eliminating that requirement and replacing it with an alert to drivers.
According to the EPA’s analysis, the changes would save the trucking industry between $4,130 and $6,152 per diesel engine affected. The agency said the modifications would increase ozone-forming nitrogen oxide pollution from heavy-duty trucks by 4.2% in 2030 and by 11.6% by 2055 compared with current emissions rules. The EPA did not model the resulting effect on air quality or human health but noted that the changes would likely reduce the benefits of prior rule changes in 2023.
“If finalized, these changes will help manufacturers keep improving their vehicles without being forced to rush products to market before they’re ready,” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said in a statement. He added that the rules changes “will ease real burdens for operators.”
Kelly Loeffler, who heads the U.S. Small Business Administration, said the rules change would alleviate “burdensome diesel regulations on behalf of farmers, truckers, and small business owners who were crushed by unworkable environmental activist demands that became costly mandates.”
The American Trucking Association had called for changes to the Biden-era rules, writing in February that the policies would require “a premature rollout of commercial motor vehicles with unproven engine technologies onto our highways.” The group specifically asked the agency to allow truck manufacturers to pay penalties instead of complying with the rules as long as they were working on developing compliant engines, an option the EPA included in the proposal.
Environmental groups criticized the proposed changes, citing health hazards from diesel emissions. Katherine García, director of the Sierra Club’s Clean Transportation for All campaign, said in a statement that “clean truck standards save lives” and that “weakening them would mean more toxic pollution in the air and more families paying the price with their health.”
The Environmental Defense Fund noted that while heavy trucks make up 5% of vehicles on U.S. roads, they are the largest source of pollutants that cause asthma attacks, bronchitis, heart attacks, strokes and preventable deaths. The group argued that truck manufacturers are already capable of meeting the Biden-era rules.
The proposal is now open for public comment.