Critics skeptical of EPA rule for trucks
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration on Monday took its first step toward tighter pollution controls on trucks, an anomalous move for a government known for weakening environmental policies but one that would pre-empt tougher state rules.
Andrew Wheeler, head of the Environmental Protection Agency, began the legal and regulatory process for curbing truck highway emissions of nitrogen dioxide, which has been linked to asthma and lung disease.
While the move could give President Donald Trump a nominal environmental achievement for the 2020 campaign, public health experts say the truck regulations are not as out of line with administration policy as they would appear. The emerging rule will quite likely limit nitrogen dioxide pollution more than current standards, they say, but still fall far short of what is necessary to significantly prevent respiratory illness and even premature deaths.
Instead, the administration appears to be complying with the wishes of the trucking industry, which has called for a new national nitrogen dioxide regulation to override states that could otherwise implement their own, tighter rules. On that front, the EPA rule is likely to open a new battle in Trump’s long-running war with California over environmental regulations and states’ rights. California is already moving ahead with stringent state-level standards on nitrogen dioxide pollution from trucks that could be replicated by other states.
“A strong and resilient trucking industry is imperative to maintaining a strong and resilient economy,” Wheeler said Monday morning at a livestock exchange in Marshall, Va., surrounded by leaders of the trucking lobby. “Through this initiative, we will modernize heavy-duty truck engines, improving their efficiency and reducing their emissions, which will lead to a healthier environment.”
Paul Billings, a senior vice president at the American Lung Association, said no one from his group or other major health or environmental groups had been invited to the event, although the Lung Association has led the lobbying push to limit nitrogen dioxide from trucks.
“Trucks remain a major source of pollution that creates smog, and smog is linked with coughing, wheezing, shortness of breath and can cause asthma and premature death,” he said.
The opening of the regulatory process is in keeping with Trump’s efforts to have it both ways on the environment. Polls show that independent voters in their 20s and 30s are increasingly concerned about environmental issues, and even as the president celebrates his rollbacks of environmental rules, he has insisted that he believes in a clean environment, frequently citing his desire for “the cleanest air” and “crystal-clean water.” In a White House speech last summer, Trump sought to recast his record by describing “America’s environmental leadership” under his command.
In other areas, at Trump’s directive, the EPA has sought to weaken or undo regulations on car and truck emissions. The agency is rolling back an Obama-era rule that had limited planet-warming carbon dioxide pollution from vehicle tailpipes, and in 2018, the agency effectively granted a loophole to allow an increase in the manufacturing of a diesel freight truck that produces as much as 55 times the air pollution as trucks that have modern emissions controls.
The EPA’s current rule on nitrogen dioxide pollution from heavyduty highway trucks, put in place in 2001, required trucks to cut emissions of nitrogen dioxide by 95 percent over 10 years. The rule contributed to a 40 percent drop in national nitrogen dioxide emissions.
Although the law does not require the agency to update the rule, the Obama administration’s EPA began examining a tighter standard after multiple states and public health organizations like the American Lung Association petitioned to cut emissions an additional 90 percent by about 2025.
Over the past two years, California has begun the legal process aimed at making such cuts. That prompted the trucking industry to lobby the EPA to move forward with a new rule that would be much looser, imposing emissions cuts of 25 percent to 50 percent. The EPA’s new rule-making effort comes after Trump last year revoked California’s legal authority to set tighter standards on tailpipe emissions, escalating the clash between the president and the most populous state.
“Industry is very concerned about” California’s “stringent proposal,” said Margo Oge, a former vehicle policy specialist at EPA who now advises several auto companies. She saw the truck rule as “another area for a fight between EPA and California.”
The legal step taken Monday by the EPA will begin the drafting of such rules, by requesting public comments and input from states, industry groups and health and environmental advocates.
Trucking industry leaders said they were confident that their concerns would be taken into account.
“Serious problems with earlier rule-makings have left small business truckers justifiably wary of new emissions reduction proposals,” said Todd Spencer, president of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, a lobbying group. “However, over the last year, representatives of the EPA have gone to great lengths to fully understand how new policies may affect our members, which wasn’t standard practice under previous administrations.”
The fact that the 2001 rule to curb emissions by 95 percent still allows trucks to emit harmful levels of the pollutant “speaks to how dirty trucks were before this rule,” Billings of the Lung Association said. “Now it’s 20 years later. Technology has improved. People are still getting sick. We can do better.”