Joe Biden has introduced his toughest standards for truck and bus emissions as part of a sweeping plan to put more electric vehicles on the roads.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Friday announced a strict set of guidelines for heavy-duty vehicles, including concrete mixers, garbage trucks, recreational vehicles, ambulances and school buses.
It would mean that 25 percent of long-haul trucks and 40 percent of medium-sized trucks – such as gardening vehicles and trucks – would have to be clean by 2032.
Anti-regulation activists criticized the move, saying it would make it harder to do business and hurt consumers.
The Biden administration has introduced its toughest truck emissions standards as part of the sweeping plan to make more vehicles electric.
School buses would be covered by new emissions rules
The rules limit the amount of pollution trucks can produce for models manufactured after 2027.
“This is another big step forward in protecting future generations from climate change,” said EPA Administrator Michael Regan.
But American Energy Alliance President Thomas Pyle said: “The EPA is setting unattainable emissions reduction targets, this time targeting heavy-duty trucks that are responsible for a huge portion of freight movement in the US.” “Uh.”
‘The technology needed to electrify the trucking industry is not yet ready, and this rule is putting us on a collision course toward supply chain disasters.
‘By raising the cost of shipping with this rule, the Biden administration is once again demonstrating its lack of concern for American families who have been hit hard by inflation and the avalanche of rules and regulations that make it increasingly difficult to make business in the TO US’
Manufacturers will have to decide how to implement the cleaner standards and could use more zero-emission batteries or hydrogen fuel cells.
The EPA believes the new limits will eliminate one billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions and improve public health.
“By considering multiple classes of vehicles, the industry can formulate appropriate investment strategies, giving them flexibility to choose from a variety of options,” he said.
US President Joe Biden receives a Chevrolet Silverado EV from General Motors CEO Mary Barra during a visit to the Detroit Auto Show to highlight American electric vehicle manufacturing, in Detroit, Michigan, US. , on September 14, 2022.
US President Joe Biden tests the new Ford F-150 Lightning truck while visiting VDAB at the Ford Dearborn Development Center in Dearborn, Michigan, US, May 18, 2021.
The measures will reduce the gasoline consumption of more than 13 million tanker trucks over the next decade, the EPA said.
“EPA is finalizing the most stringent national greenhouse gas standards in history for heavy-duty vehicles,” Regan said. “By ending these emissions standards for heavy-duty vehicles like trucks and buses, EPA is significantly reducing pollution from the hardest-working vehicles on the roads,”
He added that heavy-duty vehicles are essential to “keeping our economy moving,” but “they also contribute significantly to transportation sector pollution, emissions that are fueling climate change and creating poor air quality in too many American communities.”
Ambulances would be covered by new EPA rules
Joe Biden wants to introduce thousands of new charging stations
The EPA said about 72 million people in the United States live near truck loading routes and are more likely to be people of color or from low-income households.
“Today’s trucking rules will improve the air we breathe and curb the pollution that is causing climate change,” said Paul Billings, public policy director for the American Lung Association.
A tanker truck transports crude oil on a highway near Duchesne, Utah, on July 13, 2023.
Stacked cargo containers are loaded onto trucks for transportation at the Port of Long Beach in Long Beach, California, USA, March 28, 2024
The move comes after the Biden administration recently issued revised pollution standards for American cars in a bid to accelerate the American auto industry’s shift to electric.
Last week, it announced new standards for automakers, which will require a nearly 50 percent drop in fleet-wide emissions in 2032 compared to 2026 through increased sales of electric vehicles and low-emission cars.
The rules dovetail with other Biden programs to incentivize electric vehicle sales and build more charging stations and manufacturing facilities for electric vehicles.
Ali Zaidi, White House climate advisor. “By combating pollution from heavy vehicles, we can achieve extraordinary benefits for public health, the climate and the economy.”