WASHINGTON—The Biden administration is proposing stricter rules to reduce air pollution from commercial trucks and buses, an effort it says will combat smog in major cities and the resulting respiratory problems.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Monday proposed new standards for engine manufacturers to lower nitrogen-oxide emissions from tractor-trailer-size trucks, as well as other delivery trucks, cement mixers and trash trucks.
The standards would take effect starting in model year 2027 and require manufacturers to create gasoline- and diesel-engine models with better exhaust systems. Industry officials say that could significantly raise the cost of new vehicles, which could lead older vehicles to stay on the roads longer—running counter to the administration’s public-health goals.
EPA officials said the proposed rules are ambitious but feasible, and would benefit the public by reducing asthma and other health problems.
“These new standards will drastically cut dangerous pollution by harnessing recent advancements in vehicle technologies from across the trucking industry as it advances toward a zero-emissions transportation future,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said.
Vice President Kamala Harris touted the rules at a White House event Monday with Mr. Regan and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. Many U.S. communities exist “where pollution from heavy-duty trucks and buses has made the air poisonous to breathe,” she said. “This is not how it has to be.”
She also noted that the bipartisan infrastructure law passed last year contained $5.5 billion to lower and eliminate emissions from buses
The rules would reduce nitrogen-oxide emissions from the country’s fleet of heavy-duty trucks by as much as 60% in 2045, EPA officials said.
Regulators last called on truck and engine manufacturers to reduce nitrogen-oxide gases from vehicle exhaust in 2001. Those regulations, which were fully phased in for vehicles made in model year 2010, prompted engine manufacturers to install devices that reduced emissions of the toxic gases that form when fuel is burned.
Following those rules, air-quality officials recorded a nationwide 40% drop in emissions, the EPA said. Still, the agency said in 2019 that more than 128 million people lived in counties that failed to meet smog-related air-quality standards. Americans who live along truck-freight routes are more likely to be people of color and earn lower-than-average incomes, Mr. Regan said.
The new EPA proposal calls for engines to reduce nitrogen-oxide emissions from 0.20 grams per brake horsepower-hour, a measure of engine output, to 0.02 grams per brake horsepower-hour for heavy-duty vehicles. Under two options the agency laid out, the standard could fully take effect in 2027 or phase in by 2031.
The rules would also expand the time period that manufacturers must certify that the vehicle engine will meet air-pollution standards and the warranty period where they are liable for fixing broken emissions-control devices. EPA officials have previously said that existing warranty periods are too short given the high annual mileage accumulation for many trucks.
The proposed federal rules are similar to what California officials put in place last year, which drew criticism from the U.S. trucking industry as expensive.
Jay Grimes, director of federal affairs at the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, said that the cost of new technology for existing trucks to comply with the California rule could amount to between $5,000 and $7,000 to meet the 2027 standards, depending on vehicle class and engine type. Those costs would eventually be passed onto consumers, he said.
“In a perfect world, these technologies would become more affordable and reliable, but I’m very skeptical that we are at that point,” he said on Monday.
For new trucks, industry officials have projected that a federal standard that matches California’s rules would increase the cost by between $8,600 and $21,200 for model year 2027.
The California “standards have never been demonstrated to be technically feasible,” the Truck & Engine Manufacturers Association told White House officials in December. “No [manufacturer] has said they can produce complying product.”
Manufacturers have also warned that spending money to develop better emissions-control devices will take away from funds for advancing electric and fuel-cell technology, where trucks and buses lag behind the passenger-car and truck market.
Costly requirements could also exacerbate pollution if drivers delay buying more expensive, yet lower-emitting vehicles.
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“We’re concerned that the oldest, highest-emitting trucks on the road today are disproportionately operating in communities suffering from the greatest pollution,” said Jed Mandel, president of the truck and engine manufacturers’ group.
Public-health groups, along with state and local agencies, have pushed the EPA for even tighter rules to help improve air quality both in small, economically disadvantaged communities and major metropolitan areas that experience smog.
They say vehicle-exhaust rules haven’t focused enough on emissions from idling or slow-moving vehicles. The online-shopping boom has also led to an increase in home deliveries as well as warehouses moving into office parks located closer to neighborhoods.
Trucks “are producing the most pollution when they are moving by people’s homes, schools and workplaces,” said Ann Jaworski, a lawyer with nonprofit Environmental Law & Policy Center.
Regulators said they expect to finalize the rule later this year after reviewing public comments on the proposal.
Separately, EPA officials announced Monday that they are considering tightening greenhouse-gas-emissions standards for some categories of commercial vehicles, including school buses and commercial delivery trucks.
Write to Katy Stech Ferek at [email protected]
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