WASHINGTON (March 7, 2022) –Today the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing new, stronger standards to promote clean air and reduce pollution from heavy-duty vehicles and engines starting in model year (MY) 2027. The proposed standards would reduce emissions of smog- and soot-forming nitrogen oxides (NOx) from heavy-duty gasoline and diesel engines and set updated greenhouse gas (GHG) standards for certain commercial vehicle categories. This proposed rule would ensure the heavy-duty vehicles and engines that drive American commerce and connect people across the country are as clean as possible while charting a path to advance zero-emission vehicles in the heavy-duty fleet.
“Seventy-two million people are estimated to live near truck freight routes in America, and they are more likely to be people of color and those with lower incomes. These overburdened communities are directly exposed to pollution that causes respiratory and cardiovascular problems, among other serious and costly health effects,” said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan. “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.”
Consistent with President Biden’s Executive Order, “Strengthening American Leadership in Clean Cars and Trucks,” the proposed action would reduce NOx emissions from trucks by as much as 60 percent in 2045. It would result in widespread air quality improvements across the United States, especially in areas already overburdened by air pollution and diesel emissions.
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Today’s action is the first step in EPA’s “Clean Trucks Plan” – a series of clean air and climate regulations that the agency will develop over the next three years to reduce pollution from trucks and buses and to advance the transition to a zero-emissions transportation future.
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The proposed revisions to existing GHG standards for MY2027 and beyond would set updated GHG emissions standards for subsectors where electrification is advancing at a more rapid pace. These sectors include school buses, transit buses, commercial delivery trucks, and short-haul tractors. In a separate action, EPA will be setting new GHG emissions standards for heavy-duty vehicles as soon as model year 2030. This action will more comprehensively address the long–term trend towards zero emissions vehicles across the heavy-duty sector.
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For more information on the rule on the public comment process, please visit: https://www.epa.gov/regulations-emissions-vehicles-and-engines/proposed-rule-and-related-materials-control-air-1
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Background on air pollution:
President Trump was right – being in the Paris Climate Accord was not in America’s best interests. Especially since the US is listed among countries with the cleanest air in the world, according to the W.H.O… That’s after all the G7 countries whined about Trump removing us from the accords in 2017
In its 2018 report (& 2019 report) on air pollution, the W.H.O. ranked the United States among the countries with the cleanest air in the world, significantly cleaner than the air in Germany, Italy, Switzerland, the UK, Japan, Austria, and France.
WHO 2019 report: “Northern America remains one of the regions with the lowest overall PM2.5 levels worldwide.”
Flashback: Analysis of EPA: Climate change ‘politicized the EPA’ – ‘EPA has (mostly) solved the most basic and widespread public health and environmental problems that plagued the U.S – Amy Harder of Axios: ‘The EPA has (mostly) solved the most basic and widespread public health and environmental problems that plagued the U.S. back around the ’60’s. Climate change is now the top environmental issue in the country. That politicizes the EPA, makes it less of a big deal to average Americans and fuels antipathy from elected Republicans, most of whom don’t acknowledge it’s a real issue.’
‘The Obama administration issued a steady stream of major regulations on climate change…It was one of the most aggressive EPA’s ever’
‘Most past Republican presidents nominated EPA administrators who were more to the left on environmental issues than the Republican Party writ large.’
Watch Now: Prof. Ross McKitrick on Obama EPA regs: The health claims ‘are groundless’ – ‘Carbon dioxide is not a factor in smog or lung issues’ – Rips Obama for deceptive language: ‘Instead of calling it carbon dioxide, we are just going to call it ‘carbon pollution’ – McKitrick on Sun News on June 2, 2014 – McKitrick on Air Pollution: The models get ‘more deaths from air pollution than you were death from all causes’- ‘Particulates and soot are at such low levels in the U.S. — levels well below what they were in the 1970s. The health claims at this point are groundless coming from this administration. I noticed these numbers coming up for Ontario for how many deaths were caused by air pollution. What struck me — was knowing that air pollution levels were very low in Ontario — but they were extremely high in 1960s. So I took the same model and fed in the 1960s air pollution levels into it: How many deaths would you get? I did the calculations and you quickly get more deaths from air pollution than you were death from all causes. In other words, the streets would have been littered with bodies from air pollution if it was actually that lethal. The problem with all of these models is they are not based on an actual examination of death certificates or looking at what people actually died of — these are just statistical models where people have a spreadsheet and they take in an air pollution level and it pops out a number of deaths. But there are no actual bodies there, it is all just extrapolation.’
