President Joe Biden’s administration announced new emissions regulations on Friday, cracking down on heavy-duty vehicles, such as diesel trucks and buses.
According to Friday’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) press release, the new regulations will take effect in 2026 for 2027 truck models and will gradually become more strict until model year 2032. Biden administration officials described the new greenhouse gas emissions standards as the strongest standards for heavy-duty vehicles to date.
“EPA’s standards complement President Biden’s unprecedented investment in our workers and communities to reduce harmful emissions, while strengthening our manufacturing capacity for the transportation technologies of the future,” White House Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi said. “By tackling pollution from heavy-duty vehicles, we can unlock extraordinary public health, climate, and economic gains.”
Fox News reported that the new regulations will require a significant number of trucks and buses to achieve zero-emissions between model year 2027 and 2032. The Associated Press noted that the Biden administration’s new regulations will require 30% of “heavy-heavy-duty vocational” trucks and 40% of “day cabs” to achieve zero emission status by 2032.
EPA Administrator Michael Regan claimed that the finalized emission standards for trucks and buses will allow the agency to “significantly” reduce pollution from the “hardest working vehicles on the road.” Regan said the new regulations builds upon the agency’s recently-finalized rules for light-duty and medium-duty vehicles.
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According to the EPA’s press release, Biden administration officials believe the new regulations will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by roughly one billion tons and will lead to $13 billion in “annualized net benefits to society related to public health, the climate, and savings for truck owners and operators.”
Fox News reported that the new regulations will impact delivery vehicles, school buses, public transportation buses, fire trucks, concrete trucks, garbage trucks, and both short-haul and long-haul tractor-trailer trucks. According to Fox News, the EPA previously suggested that the new standards could result in 25% of long-haul tractor-trailers, 35% of short-haul tractor-trailers, and 50% of vocational trucks being produced as electric vehicles in 2032.
The Biden administration’s new regulations were immediately met with backlash from both American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers President and CEO Chet Thompson and American Petroleum Institute President and CEO Mike Sommers. In a statement obtained by Fox News, Thompson and Sommers urged Congress to overturn the new EPA regulations and threatened legal action against the Biden administration.
“This is yet another example of the Biden administration’s whole-of-government effort to eliminate choices for American consumers, businesses, and industries,” Thompson and Sommers stated. “There is significant uncertainty regarding the technological and infrastructure capability to comply with this rule, which may threaten the speed and cost of goods moving throughout the country.”
