EPA to start ‘reconsideration’ of emissions regulations

US Environmental Protection Agency headquarters in Washington DC (Photo: Reuters)

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator Lee Zeldin has unveiled plans to carry out ‘reconsideration’ of 31 policies put in place by previous presidential administrations which intended to reduce related emissions across a range of industries.

At the announcement, Zeldin said: “Today is the greatest day of deregulation our nation has seen. We are driving a dagger straight into the heart of the climate change religion to drive down cost of living for American families, unleash American energy, bring auto jobs back to the US and more.”

In a related statement from the EPA it was noted: ‘While accomplishing [the] EPA’s core mission of protecting the environment, the agency is committed to fulfilling President Trump’s promise to unleash American energy, lower cost of living for Americans, revitalize the American auto industry, restore the rule of law, and give power back to states to make their own decisions’.

The actions will include reconsideration of regulations affecting power plants, the oil and gas industry (including related wastewater regulations), the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program and Risk Management Program for refineries and chemical facilities.

Looking at the transport sector, there will be a reconsideration of light-, medium- and heavy-duty vehicle regulations which ‘provided the foundation for the Biden-Harris electric vehicle mandate (Car GHG Rules)’.

EPA administrator Lee Zeldin speaking at a meeting in East Palestine, Ohio (Photo: Reuters)

There will also be a reconsideration of the technology transition rule which ‘forces companies to use certain technologies that increased the costs of food at grocery stores and semiconductor manufacturing (Technology Transition Rule)’, together with an ‘overhaul’ of the Biden-Harris administration’s Social Cost of Carbon initiative.

Industry support

In a statement published following the announcement by the EPA, Chris Spear, president and CEO of American Trucking Associations, voiced his support for the reviews. “GHG3 in its current form is unachievable given the state of battery-electric technology and the sheer lack of charging infrastructure. This rule has been an albatross for the trucking industry, threatening to reduce equipment availability, increase costs for businesses and consumers, and cause major supply chain disruptions.

“It is critically important that the federal government set realistic standards with achievable targets and timelines. Prior to the imposition of GHG3, EPA used a collaborate process that served the agency and the trucking industry well and allowed us to make monumental progress to reduce emissions. As a result, sixty trucks today emit the same amount as one truck manufactured in 1988.”

Cancel prebuy

It’s likely that these reconsiderations will burst a forecast ‘prebuy’ bubble that was expected in advance of the new emissions standards set to take effect in 2027.

While this could be considered bad news for truck OEMs, some industry commentators noted that the wider trucking and logistics industry will welcome the changes, considering the higher per-unit price for vehicles featuring new emissions reduction technology.

There was also some trepidation that those new technologies intended to reduce vehicle emissions could impact the reliability of new vehicles. Back in 2007, OEMs launched models with hardware intended to reduce NOx emissions; failure of these units resulted in trucks being taken off the road for repairs, with related disruption for fleet operations and customers.

Change guaranteed

It’s not clear whether the EPA intends to rollback or cancel the regulations under reconsideration. But environmental and public health groups were not impressed by the announcement.

“EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin [has] unveiled a plan to attack dozens of the nation’s most successful and vital environmental protections addressing industrial pollution – pollution limits that have saved lives, protected millions from severe health problems, helped Americans save money on fuel bills and health care costs, and launched hundreds of thousands of new US manufacturing jobs,” said Amanda Leland, executive director of the Environmental Defense Fund.

She continued: “We will vigorously oppose Administrator Zeldin’s unlawful attack on the public health of the American people that seeks to tear down life-saving clean air standards – putting millions of people in harm’s way.”

It can be expected that any relaxation in existing standards, hard-won over the past 20 years, will be met with legal challenges. Even pollution at modern levels is considered harmful, particularly in high concentrations found in urban areas. It was further put forward that new emissions levels – and related improvements in fuel economy – could have saved American drivers about $1 trillion in fuel costs (no timeframe for this was given).

Uncertain future

What auto and truck OEMs have made clear as emissions regulations have become stricter is that those new targets are clear and achievable. The elimination of tighter emission regulations means that related investment made by OEMs and suppliers to deliver technologies specifically intended to achieve compliance has, at least in the United States, been wasted.

EPA changes could impact new-fuel projects such as the Kenworth T680 FCEV (Photo: Kenworth)

Then there are those startups which have been developing vehicles from the ground up to feed the market with low- and zero-emission transport options. But even before the EPA announcement, these companies were facing some considerable headwind involving market acceptance, technology development and retail cost issues.

What will become of these battery-electric and hydrogen powertrain specialists in a market which is no longer required to achieve reduced emission levels will become apparent over the coming months and years, but regulatory changes could see many of these facing an uncertain future.

Less stringent emissions targets will certainly be welcomed by logistics companies. Effectively given a green light to continue with business as usual, these companies will no longer be required to invest in expensive new fleets, which will help to maintain operating margins. That might help to cut the price of eggs in grocery stores across the nation, but as with many new policies from the Trump administration, it could be a case of a quick win delivering unanticipated problems down the road.