EPA Continues Public Health Attacks by Weakening Pollution Standards for Trucks

EPA Continues Public Health Attacks by Weakening Pollution Standards for Trucks

The current proposal from the EPA seeks to weaken the standards and would hinder progress on cleaning up emissions

Contacts

Alexandria Trimble, [email protected]

Today, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a proposal to weaken pollution standards for heavy-duty vehicles like trucks.

"The EPA keeps abdicating its basic responsibility to protect people's health and the environment," said Anne Clement, Senior Legislative Representative at Earthjustice. "Strong pollution standards for trucks help protect communities from harmful air pollution associated with devastating health consequences. Instead of trying to weaken protective pollution standards, the EPA should fully implement and enforce them."

Background

Standards finalized in 2022 under the Biden administration set more protective limits on health-harming tailpipe pollution from heavy-duty vehicles, including nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions, starting in model year 2027. The current proposal from the EPA seeks to weaken the standards and would hinder progress on cleaning up emissions.

While heavy-duty trucks make up 10 percent of vehicles on the road, they are responsible for 45 percent of NOx emissions. NOx emissions harm people's health by adding more soot and toxic pollution to the air, reducing lung function in children and adults, and compounding breathing problems. Communities living near transportation corridors, ports, and warehouses bear the brunt of that pollution.

Earlier this year, Earthjustice joined more than 70 other groups in opposing any weakening or delaying of air pollution protections, including for heavy-duty vehicles.

About Earthjustice

Earthjustice is the premier nonprofit environmental law organization. We wield the power of law and the strength of partnership to protect people's health, to preserve magnificent places and wildlife, to advance clean energy, and to combat climate change. We are here because the earth needs a good lawyer.