New EPA chief stops dirty truck allowance under Pruitt

Andrew R. Wheeler, the acting administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, has reversed the final policy act of his predecessor, Scott Pruitt: granting a loophole that would have allowed more highly polluting trucks on the nation’s roads.

Wheeler’s decision, outlined in a memo to his top air policy staff, formally vacates the move Pruitt made on his last day in office, earlier this month, before resigning amid a host of ethics investigations. Pruitt had told manufacturers that the agency would not enforce a cap on what are known as “glider” trucks — vehicles with older and less efficient engines installed.

“I have concluded that the application of current regulations to the glider industry does not represent the kind of extremely unusual circumstances that support the EPA’s exercise of enforcement discretion,” Wheeler wrote.

Wheeler has worked during his first three weeks as the EPA’s acting chief to put distance between himself and Pruitt stylistically by addressing his staff, issuing a public schedule of his activities and taking questions from journalists. The about-face on gliders represents the first sign that Wheeler may seek to distinguish himself from Pruitt on policy as well.

“With Mr. Pruitt out, I’m glad to see EPA will reverse one of the most egregious — and likely illegal — environmental proposals of his tenure,” Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware, the top Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said in a statement. He called the reversal “a step in the right direction” but he criticized a longer-term EPA plan that aims to eventually exempt glider trucks from greenhouse gas regulations.

Glider kits are new trucks that come without an engine or transmission — the name comes from the idea that they are engineless, like gliders. Older engines are then installed, and the resulting vehicles produce as much as 55 times the amount of air pollution as trucks with modern emissions controls.

They currently account for about 5 percent of all heavy-duty trucks on the road. The Obama administration had estimated that, left unchecked, gliders could generate a third of the truck fleet’s soot and other pollutants that contribute to smog and acid rain, and sought to limit their annual production to 300 vehicles through the end of 2019.

Those restrictions were supported by a mix of public health and environmental organizations as well as major companies like United Parcel Service, the largest truck fleet owner, and Volvo Group, one of the largest truck manufacturers. But the EPA under Pruitt began the process of repealing the rule after lobbying by a small set of manufacturers that sell glider trucks.

Pruitt resigned July 5, but before he left office he notified manufacturers that the agency would not enforce the caps. An agency spokeswoman also indicated the EPA might formally delay the caps until December 2019, by which point it hoped to have them permanently repealed.

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals stayed Pruitt’s loophole on July 18. Joanne Spalding, chief climate counsel at the Sierra Club, said in a statement that Wheeler’s decision to officially reverse course on the decision amounted to having “conceded defeat.”