Feds considering repeal of EPA emissions rule for trucks

The Trump administration is considering repealing an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rule limiting emissions from truck components.

According to an Office of Management and Budget notice, the EPA is formally proposing to repeal the rule, something EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt said in August he would do.

The regulation, an Obama administration effort to cut climate change-causing emissions from the transportation sector, aims to limit pollution from trucks.

{mosads}

The rule applies to gliders, which are medium- and heavy-duty trucks assembled using refurbished powertrains and new truck parts called “glider kits,” which are also subject to the regulation. Obama’s EPA aimed to apply emissions standards for new motor vehicles and engines to the refurbished gliders.

But industry groups and the manufacturing sector oppose the rule, saying it would hurt producers and “effectively destroy the glider industry,” manufacturers wrote in a petition with the EPA in July.

In August, Pruitt said the agency would reconsider the regulation “in light of the significant issues raised,” before it takes effect next year.

Greens and public health groups support the rule. In a Monday statement, the American Lung Association said the EPA had issued “another devastating blow to air quality and public health, giving older dirty heavy-duty trucks a license to pollute the air we all breathe with nitrogen oxides and particulate matter that can cause asthma attacks, lung cancer and premature death — as well as carbon pollution that causes climate change.”

The EPA is targeting other Obama-era regulations on transportation sector emissions as well. President Trump in March directed the agency to roll back fuel economy goals for cars between model years 2021 and 2025.