New InfluenceMap analysis of corporate engagement during the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) public comment period for the recently proposed Phase 3 GHG emission standards found extensive efforts by truck manufacturers, fossil fuel companies, and their respective industry associations to weaken the heavy-duty vehicle emissions standard, which would cut diesel pollution under the EPA Clean Trucks Plan.
In the most recent series of comments submitted directly to the EPA, truck makers, and the fossil fuel industry echoed similar sentiments and proposed revisions to the regulation that weaken the ambition of the standards. Exposure to diesel pollution from trucks can lead to serious health conditions like asthma and respiratory illnesses and can worsen existing heart and lung disease, especially in children and the elderly, according to the EPA. The industry and lobbying groups advocated for a variety of modifications to the program, including calls to delay its implementation, maintaining existing credit multipliers that weaken program outcomes, and opposing rapid electrification.
The analysis shows how oil majors and truck makers us similar arguments to weaken key rules that would cut harmful pollutants and decarbonize US trucks and other heavy-duty vehicles. Fossil-powered trucks remain a key source of demand for oil in the US, with negative advocacy potentially creating a major threat to US climate goals on transport. Multiple groups cited concerns around grid stress and charging infrastructure, but electric utility companies responsible for maintaining the grid exhibited strong support for the regulation.
Key findings from the analysis include:
Addressing the findings, InfluenceMap analyst Leo Menninger said: “Engagement with EPA’s new emissions standards has revealed that the interests and tactics of some key players in the auto and oil industry are very aligned; both sectors are strongly advocating to weaken the stringency of the proposed Phase 3 standards and asking for a delay in its implementation. With a significant percentage of US’s GHG emissions targets relying on the decarbonization of heavy-duty vehicles, stringent and timely regulations are necessary to achieve the US government target of 100% zero-emission medium and heavy-duty vehicle sales by 2040.”
The EPA Clean Trucks Plan, a series of regulations announced in August 2021, are designed to reduce GHG emissions and other harmful air pollutants from HDVs over the next three years. In March 2022, the EPA released the first of its heavy-duty related proposals under the Clean Trucks Plan to regulate the emission standards between 2027-2029.
Announced in April 2023, the U.S. EPA's latest federal “Phase 3” greenhouse gas (GHG) emission standards for heavy-duty vehicles (HDVs) called for more stringent GHG emission standards from 2028-2032. The comment period/consultation has since ended, and the announcement of the new rule is imminent.
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