“Now that I have a 2-year-old kid, we actually try to avoid playing outside when there is bad air,” said Makarem, who lives in Kansas City, Kan., and is a spokesman for the Moving Forward Network, a group that advocates for reducing pollution in disadvantaged communities. “Hopefully, this is a step in the right direction.”
The EPA rule follows strict emissions limits for gas-powered cars aimed at accelerating the nation’s halting transition to electric vehicles. It marks the first time in more than two decades that the federal government has cracked down on pollution from diesel trucks.
The rule doesn’t go as far as Makarem and other environmental justice advocates would like. The Moving Forward Network had urged the EPA to require all new trucks to be zero-emission by 2035.
Yet EPA officials said the rule will not mandate the adoption of a particular zero-emission technology. Rather, it will require manufacturers to reduce emissions by choosing from several cleaner technologies, including electric trucks, hybrid trucks and hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles.
Still, the rule stands to benefit poor, Black and Latino communities that are disproportionately exposed to diesel exhaust from highways, ports and sprawling distribution centers. These communities suffer higher rates of asthma, heart disease and premature deaths from air pollution.
“An estimated 72 million Americans, often people of color or people with lower incomes, live near freight truck routes,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said on a call with reporters. “Reducing emissions from our heavy-duty vehicles means cleaner air and less pollution. It means safer and more vibrant communities,” he added.
One change from the proposed rule released last year: The final rule will not require truck manufacturers to dramatically ramp up the production of cleaner vehicles until after 2030. That represents a slower timeline than California’s truck pollution regulation, which mandates steep increases starting this year.
But the final rule will still achieve greater emissions reductions than the original proposal, according to the EPA. It will avoid 1 billion metric tons of greenhouse gases — equivalent to the emissions from more than 13 million tanker trucks’ worth of gasoline, the agency said.
The regulation could face legal challenges from the truck industry, which has pushed to delay the nation’s shift away from fossil fuels.
Publicly, truck makers say they are committed to cutting emissions. Volvo plans to be “fossil-free” by 2040, while Daimler Truck has set a goal of selling only carbon-neutral trucks and buses in the United States, Europe and Japan by 2039.
But behind the scenes, the Truck and Engine Manufacturers Association, which represents the nation’s largest truck makers, lobbied to weaken the EPA proposal. The industry has also led a campaign against California’s Advanced Clean Trucks Regulation, which 10 other states have adopted.
The association’s president, Jed Mandel, voiced concern Friday that the final rule “will end up being the most challenging, costly and potentially disruptive heavy-duty emissions rule in history.”
But not all truck makers are opposing the standards.
Cummins, a maker of diesel engines, said in a statement that while the policy is “ambitious,” the industry “needs nationwide…
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