EPA setting new truck emission standards, reinstating California’s waiver

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is working on two separate actions that will reestablish California’s emission standards waiver and set new federal rules regarding truck emissions.

Consistent with President Joe Biden’s climate agenda, the EPA will reinstate California’s ability to establish emission standards that are stricter than federal standards. Also, the EPA is picking up where former President Donald Trump’s administration left off by drafting new truck emission standards at the federal level with the Cleaner Trucks Initiative.

“When EPA first proposed the Cleaner Trucks Initiative in 2020, the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association supported including industry stakeholders in the rulemaking process. We believed this approach would result in practical, cost-effective standards that do not unfairly punish professional truckers,” Jay Grimes, OOIDA’s director of federal affairs, said. “However, we fear that restoring California’s waiver is an indication that any new federal NOx emissions regulations could closely align with burdensome CARB policies. Clean air is a priority for everyone, including truckers, but emissions technology must be affordable and reliable. Owner-operators should not be used as ‘guinea pigs’ for testing new technology, while getting priced out of business in the process.”

Stricter federal truck emission standards

The Biden administration is working on updating truck emission standards that are more than 20 years old.

In 2018, the EPA announced it Cleaner Trucks Initiative. The propose rule will lower nitrogen oxide emissions on heavy-duty truck engines.

The rulemaking process for the Cleaner Trucks Initiative has been slow. The EPA has been gathering data and information from stakeholders before deciding on what the new standards will be. Although the initiative was announced in 2018, the EPA did not begin soliciting input from truckers and other stakeholders until January 2020.

Biden’s EPA is carrying the torch. Land Line confirmed with the EPA that it is working on a proposed rule to reduce pollution from heavy-duty vehicles and engines. According to an EPA spokesperson, these standards are subject to interagency review. The agency did not share a timetable.

The New York Times reports that the new truck emission standards will reflect California’s recently enacted truck pollution rules.

However, the EPA would not confirm that claim.

In September 2020, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Executive Order N-79-20, which addresses emission standards in passenger vehicles. In short, the order will require 100% of sales of new passenger vehicles in California to be zero-emission by 2035. The executive order also requires the same standard for medium and heavy-duty trucks by 2045.

The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association has been involved in the process to ensure that the voice of small-business truckers is heard before the EPA makes a formal proposal.

“The EPA under this administration has been much more engaged with us as an organization and our membership to understand some of the challenges our members face when emission regulations are rolled out and imposed on our industry,” said Collin Long, OOIDA’s director of government affairs, during EPA’s announcement in January 2020. “We think the conversations we’ve had with EPA over this issue have been very productive. Unlike any other administration, this one has really gone to great lengths to understand the unique challenges of small-business operators and owner-operators.

“We think that will produce, hopefully, a regulation that our members can certainly get behind. Previous emissions regulations have been very hard on our members, specifically a lot of challenges with serviceability of equipment and reliability of equipment. We think the conversations we’re currently having with EPA and hope to continue having with EPA will end with a regulation that our members will find very suitable.”

California’s Clean Air Act waiver

Biden’s EPA is also planning to return California’s waiver allowing stricter emission standards, which was stripped from the state by the Trump administration. By doing so, the Golden State will reassert itself as the golden standard for vehicle and parts manufacturers.

Land Line has confirmed with the EPA its plans to reverse a Trump-era decision to deny California a waiver that allows it to circumvent federal emission standards established by the Clean Air Act. Up until then, California had been granted the waiver since the Nixon administration.

An EPA spokesperson told Land Line that it is working to finalize a decision on the California waiver consistent with its obligations under the Clean Air Act and expects to issue a decision in the near future.

Manufacturers do not build vehicles specific to individual state emission standards. Considering California’s massive population and economy, manufacturers have used its standards to guide its decisions. That has influenced more than a dozen states to adopt similar standards.

Losing the waiver strips California of that influence. By returning the waiver, the EPA is also returning that influence on an emissions standards guideline for manufacturers.

Section 209(a) of the Clean Air Act states prohibits states from enacting their own car and truck emission standards. However, section 209(b)(1) allows the EPA to waive that prohibition for California, assuming its standards are at least as protective of public health and welfare as applicable federal standards.

California’s waiver is not bulletproof.

The EPA can deny the waiver if it finds any of the following:

• California’s determination that its standards in the aggregate will be at least as protective is arbitrary and capricious.
• California does not need such state standards to meet compelling and extraordinary conditions.
• Such state standards and accompanying enforcement procedures are not consistent with section 202(a).

In 2018, the EPA found that California does not need its emission standards to meet “compelling and extraordinary conditions” because those standards address environmental problems that are not particular or unique to the state; are not a cause of emissions or other factors particular or unique to California; and the standards will not provide any remedy particular or unique to California.

The EPA also ruled that California’s emission standards are inconsistent with section 202(a) “because they are technologically infeasible.”

On September 19, 2019, then Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao announced the One National Program rule. Essentially, the rule codifies EPA’s findings regarding California’s waiver.

“The One National Program rule we are announcing today will ensure that there is one – and only one – set of national fuel economy standards, as Congress intended,” Chao said in prepared remarks. “No state has the authority to opt out of the nation’s rules, and no state has the right to impose its policies on everyone else. To do otherwise harms consumers. And damages the U.S. economy.”

California and 22 other state and local governments immediately filed a lawsuit challenging the rule. LL

Land Line Senior Editor Mark Schremmer contributed to this report