Senate to vote on resolution to overturn EPA rule

April 25, 2023

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Mark Schremmer

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The U.S. Senate is expected to vote Wednesday, April 26, on a resolution aimed at overturning the Environmental Protection Agency’s stringent emission mandate for heavy-duty trucks.

The EPA’s final rule was announced by the agency in December and took effect on March 27. The rule will impose strict clean air standards for heavy-duty trucks beginning with model year 2027.

In February, Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., introduced a Congressional Review Act resolution to overturn the rulemaking. The resolution has received 36 co-sponsors.

“This aggressive EPA rule will hit mom-and-pop operations the hardest,” Fischer said. “For trucks to be compliant with the new overregulation, it will be cost-prohibitive for small-business owners.”

The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association supports the resolution to overturn the mandate.

“If small-business truckers can’t afford the new, compliant trucks, they’re going to stay with older, less efficient trucks, or leave the industry entirely,” OOIDA President Todd Spencer said. “Once again, EPA has largely ignored the warnings and concerns raised by truckers in this latest rule.”

Expecting a down-to-the-wire vote, OOIDA sent emails on April 25 to members in Arizona, Montana and West Virginia as part of an effort to encourage their lawmakers to vote in favor of Fischer’s resolution.

OOIDA is asking members in those states to contact Sens. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz.; Jon Tester, D-Mont., and Joe Manchin, D-W. Va.

More information about Fischer’s resolution can be found here.

House version

Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, introduced a House version of Fischer’s resolution earlier this month.

HJRes 53 would demonstrate “that Congress disapproves the rule submitted by the administrator of the EPA relating to Control of Air Pollution from New Motor Vehicles: Heavy-Duty Engine and Vehicle Standards, and such rule shall have no force or effect.” The resolution was referred to the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., is a co-sponsor for the resolution. LL

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Mark Schremmer, senior editor, joined Land Line in 2015. An award-winning journalist and former assistant news editor at The Topeka Capital-Journal, he brings fresh ideas, solid reporting skills, and more than two decades of journalism experience to our staff.