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US pushes for weaker truck pollution rules / Photo: © GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File
US pushes for weaker truck pollution rules
President Donald Trump's administration on Thursday moved to loosen truck pollution regulations put in place by his predecessor Joe Biden, in its latest environmental rollback that benefits makers of fossil fuel burning vehicles.
Speaking to reporters at an event on the National Mall, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin said the changes would help both manufacturers and truck operators, who he said had warned the previous rules "would drive up costs" and "force companies to rush products to market before they were ready."
The proposed changes pertain to a 2023 rule designed to tamp down NOx -- shorthand for nitric oxide and nitrogen dioxide -- from truck tailpipes, beginning with model year 2027.
It still requires a public comment period before it is finalized.
NOx is a smog-forming pollutant that aggravates respiratory illnesses, especially asthma, forms acid rain and contributes to nutrient pollution in coastal waters.
Notably, the EPA wants to reduce the emissions-related warranty -- the amount of time makers guarantee their pollution controls will work -- from 450,000 miles back down to 100,000 miles.
At the same time, regulators argued they are keeping in place nearly 90 percent of NOx reductions from the Biden rule.
Together, it estimated the amendments would save $12 billion, up to $6,000 in savings per new truck for Americans.
"We believe strongly at the Trump EPA that we can protect the environment and grow the economy," Zeldin said.
But the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) said the changes would harm Americans' health.
"This Trump EPA proposal to weaken vital clean air protections will mean more health harms and higher costs in communities across the country," said the EDF's Peter Zalzal in a statement.
"Heavy duty diesel vehicles like freight trucks and buses emit huge amounts of smog and soot-forming pollution into the air we breathe, but truck makers are already introducing new engines that can substantially cut this pollution and meet protective standards.
"EPA should abandon this proposal and instead maintain strong pollution safeguards for new heavy-duty vehicles."
The Trump administration has taken an axe to vehicle emissions standards, eliminating for instance climate regulations that were regulated under a landmark scientific determination called the Endangerment Finding.
O. Joergensen--BTZ
