EPA Moves To Tighten Regulations on Emissions

Alex Wigglesworth, Anumita Kaur, Thomas Curwen report on a proposed rule from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that aims to reduce emissions. "The draft rule proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency, which would take effect in model year 2027, would reduce emissions of g nitrogen oxides from gasoline and diesel engines by as much as 60% in 2045, the agency said."

"The proposed rule change was modeled after smog-curbing regulations already adopted by the state of California, although the federal requirements would be less stringent. Many air quality advocates said the rule doesn’t go far enough," according to the article. Environmentalists argue the EPA should more aggressively pursue electrification of heavy-duty trucks, which emit harmful pollution along freight corridors, many of them adjacent to low-income communities. "Although heavy-duty diesel trucks make up just a tiny fraction of vehicles on the road, they produce more than half the on-road pollution in California, said Will Barrett, national senior director for clean air advocacy for the American Lung Assn."

For its part, "California in 2020 passed a rule limiting truck emissions to no more than 0.05 gram of nitrogen oxide pollution per brake-horsepower hour by 2024 and to 0.02 gram by 2027," a goal more ambitious than the EPA's proposal.

The article details other steps California has taken to reduce emissions and improve air quality, as well as the pushback from some in the trucking industry. The EPA will choose one of several options to finalize the plan by the end of this year as "the first step in a series of regulations the EPA will develop over the next three years to reduce pollution from trucks and buses."