The Environmental Protection Agency announced on Friday that it has set strict emissions standards for heavy-duty trucks, buses, and other large vehicles, which officials said will help reduce some of the nation’s biggest sources of greenhouse gases that warm the planet.
The regulations, which will be in effect for model years 2027 through 2032, are expected to prevent up to 1 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions over the next thirty years and bring about $13 billion in overall benefits in the form of reduced hospital visits, fewer missed work days, and lives saved, according to the EPA. The new standards will particularly benefit an estimated 72 million people in the United States who reside near freight routes used by trucks and other heavy vehicles and bear a disproportionate burden of harmful air pollution, the agency noted.
According to EPA Administrator Michael Regan, “Heavy-duty vehicles are crucial for transporting goods and services across our country, keeping our economy running. However, they also significantly contribute to pollution from the transportation sector — emissions that are driving climate change and causing poor air quality in many American communities. Lowering emissions from our heavy-duty vehicles means cleaner air and less pollution. It means safer and more lively communities. It means reduced fuel and maintenance costs for truck owners and operators. And it means healthier Americans.”
The recent regulations for heavy trucks and buses were introduced a week after the EPA revealed new emissions standards for passenger vehicles. These rules ease initial tailpipe limits proposed last year but come close to the same stringent standards outlined by the EPA for model year 2032.
The auto industry could adhere to the limits if 56% of new passenger vehicle sales are electric by 2032, in addition to at least 13% plug-in hybrids or other partially electric cars, as stated by the EPA.
The regulation for trucks is more intricate, with an array of electric-vehicle or other unconventional sales anticipated, depending on the type of vehicle and its use, according to the agency. For example, 30% of “heavy-heavy-duty vocational” trucks would need to be zero-emission by 2032, the EPA said, while 40% of short-haul “day cabs” would need to be zero-emission vehicles.
The new rules for cars and trucks coincide with a decline in sales of EVs, which are necessary to meet both standards. The auto industry highlighted reduced sales growth when objecting to the EPA’s preferred standards, which were disclosed last April for passenger vehicles, a critical element of President Joe Biden’s ambitious plan to reduce emissions that warm the planet.
“Our Clean Trucks plan complements President Biden’s unprecedented investments in America and fulfills this administration’s pledge to combat climate change while promoting environmental equity,” stated Regan.
The new regulation will offer greater certainty for the industry and support U.S. manufacturing jobs in advanced vehicle technologies, Regan stated. Over the next decade, the standards “will set the U.S. heavy-duty sector on a trajectory for sustained growth,” he added.
Industry groups strongly disagreed. They criticized the new standards as impossible to achieve with current electric vehicle technology and expressed dissatisfaction over a lack of EV charging stations and power grid capacity limits.
The American Trucking Associations and the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, which represent large parts of the industry, anticipated supply chain failures and stated that smaller independent firms would probably keep older diesel trucks that emit more pollution, opposing the EPA's objectives.
The new limits decrease zero-emission sales rates proposed for the 2027 through 2029 model years but demand higher sales later, effectively requiring electric and hydrogen-powered trucks, according to the trucking associations statement. The EPA rule restricts truck and bus options to untested technology, the group stated.
“The post-2030 targets remain entirely unachievable,” said Chris Spear, the trucking group’s CEO. “Any regulation that fails to account for the operational realities of trucking will set the industry and America’s supply chain up for failure.”
Todd Spencer, president of the independent drivers association, which represents small trucking companies, said the Democratic administration “seems dead-set on regulating every local mom-and-pop business out of existence with its flurry of unworkable environmental mandates.”
The American Petroleum Institute, the top lobbying group for the oil and gas industry, remarked in a joint statement with the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers that the new rule “is yet another example of the Biden administration’s whole-of-government effort to eliminate choices for American consumers, businesses and industries.”
The rule primarily relies on zero-emission vehicles and “discourages the development of other fuel-based technologies — including American-made renewable diesel — that are currently effective in the heavy-duty fleet to reduce emissions,” the groups stated.
They called for the rule to be overturned by Congress but said they are prepared to challenge it in court.
Regan said the EPA established the limits to provide truck owners with a range of powertrains, including advanced combustion vehicles, hybrids, electric, and hydrogen fuel cells.
“There’s a list of options that truck drivers, owners and operators can choose from … while we (do) not sacrifice the very stringent environmental goals that we have set,” he told reporters Thursday.
The EPA calculated that new trucks would save operators a total of $3.5 billion in fuel and other costs from 2027 to 2032, paying for themselves in two to four years. The 2022 Inflation Reduction Act also provides tax credits that subsidize the purchase price of new electric vehicles, Regan said.
The new emissions limits will bring immediate health benefits, especially in communities burdened by heavy truck traffic, said Harold Wimmer, CEO of the American Lung Association.
“Transportation is the largest source of pollution driving climate change,” he said in a statement. “These strong standards that will help drive toward a zero-emission future for trucks, buses and other heavy-duty vehicles are a critical part of the solution.”
Margo Oge, who used to be the director of the EPA's Office of Transportation and Air Quality, mentioned that although medium and heavy diesel trucks account for less than 6% of vehicles on the road, they produce over half of the smog and soot that Americans breathe, and also contribute to global warming. She believes that the EPA standards are a significant step in the right direction to combat climate change and improve air quality.
