New Environmental Protection Agency rules and deadlines for heavy-duty trucks and buses were announced Friday, March 29, and quickly drew mixed reviews in Southern Californian, where trucks stream around the clock from bustling ports to burgeoning waves of inland warehouses.
The EPA rolled out the new strict standards in what is an ongoing, unprecedented push to rid the environment of pollutants. Officials said the rules will help clean some of the nation’s largest sources of greenhouse gases.
Under the new EPA rule, 30% of “very” heavy-duty trucks need to be zero emission by 2032. Forty percent of short-haul trucks will need to transition by that time.
“Unprecedented capital investments” will be needed, said Allen Schaeffer, executive director of the Engine Technology Forum in a written statement released commenting on the new rule.
“It requires truck makers to convert an increasing percentage of total vehicle sales each year to zero emission vehicles,” he said.
In a statement released by the EPA, this final national greenhouse gas pollution document for heavy-duty vehicles, including freight trucks and buses for model years 2027-32, will “avoid 1 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions.”
It also will provide $13 billion, the statement said, in net benefits in the form of fewer hospital visits, lost work days and deaths the EPA said.
The new standards, the agency added, also will benefit an estimated 72 million people in the United States who live near freight routes used by trucks and and other heavy vehicles and bear a disproportionate burden of dangerous air pollution.
Residents in the communities surrounding the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach — including San Pedro, Wilmington, Harbor City, and Long Beach — have long complained about rising air quality and health issues related to emissions from trucks, ships and trains moving cargo to and from that gateway.
The EPA’s announcement included several statements from public health and environmental groups that hailed the move.
“Today’s rule will improve the air we breathe and curb the pollution that is driving climate change,” said Paul G. Billings, national senior vice-president of policy for the American Lung Association.
Katherine Garcia, director of the Sierra Club’s Clean Transportation for All campaign, said the standards reflect Congress’ “long-standing demand for healthy air along with its recent historic investments in getting cleaner vehicles on our roads, corridors, and ports. Together, they are a game changer.”
She added that with climate change now underway “it’s crucial that truck manufacturers get into the fast lane with zero-emission trucks to deliver the climate, health, and economic benefits we deserve.”
But there will be a steep hill ahead.
The ultimate success of the rule, Schaeffer of the Engine Technology Forum said, will be contingent on a number of factors, many of which are outside the control of vehicle manufacturers. Those include, he said, “truckers’ acceptance of zero-emission vehicle technologies; the rapid transformation of the industrial base to support widespread electrification; and the establishment of a national charging infrastructure.”
Testing also is still ongoing for clean technology that isn’t altogether proven or widely available — let alone affordable for many — in the commercial marketplace.
Among industrial hubs affected by the ongoing rush to transition are the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach and related industries, stretching out to also impact the swiftly growing local warehouse industry, which has enjoyed a boom in Inland Southern California in the past decade.
“Heavy-duty vehicles are essential for moving goods and services throughout our country, keeping our economy moving,” said EPA Administrator Michael Regan who just recently visited the Port of Los Angeles. “They’re also significant contributors to pollution from the transportation sector — emissions that are fueling climate change and creating poor air quality in too many American communities.”
Dropped on Good Friday, which for many is part of the long Easter holiday weekend, the announcement had many scrambling to assess what it all means.
Higher costs to users — along with the need to rapidly increase charging and fueling infrastructure — are seen as the biggest immediate challenges included in the lengthy document, said Matt Schrap, CEO of the Harbor Trucking Association.
An EPA spokesperson said up-front costs would be recouped through “operational savings” through fuel.
Monetary incentives are being offered through port programs for truck purchases, as many drivers serving in the port drayage fleet are owner-operators who cannot afford the newer trucks.
The environmental push, however, is nothing new to California, where efforts and deadlines to cut emissions have been ongoing for years.
Rules previously passed by the California Air Resources Board seek to phase out diesel trucks in the state by 2042.
More locally, the governing board of the South Coast Air Quality Management District in 2021 passed the Warehouse Indirect Source Rule, which requires warehouses to use zero-emission trucks, install green technology or pay a mitigation fee to slash diesel emissions associated with goods movement.
In February, an event showcased a trucking company’s Ontario-based fleet of electric-powered drayage trucks, funded in part by a state government and pollution-fighting public agencies. NFI’s trucks are expected to offset 4,400 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions every year.
Officials hope NFI’s battery-powered truck fleet and charging stations herald a new era of zero-emission big rigs clearing the air as they connect the ports and inland warehouses.
Despite the new rules, trucks bought and registered in California will still be subject to the state’s stricter emission limits, Chris Shimoda, spokesperson for the California Trucking Association, said via email.
The federal rules will apply to trucks bought in other states, he said.
“What this means for the Inland Empire is its status as a logistics center and the blue-collar jobs the industry provides will be under threat as it will be significantly cheaper and easier to purchase and operate trucks outside California, including in our immediate neighboring states,” Shimoda said.
Meanwhile, officials at the mammoth Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach — neither of which could be reached for comment on Friday — are pushing forward with zero-emissions deadlines set out in the 2006 San Pedro Bay Ports Clean Air Action Plan.
Under that plan, port terminal equipment needs to be zero emission by 2030 and the trucks serving the ports need to transition by 2035.
The new federal rules for heavy trucks and buses came a week after the EPA announced new automobile emissions standards for passenger vehicles. Those rules relax initial tailpipe limits proposed last year but get close to the same strict standards set out by the EPA for model year 2032.
The auto industry could meet the limits if 56% of new passenger vehicle sales are electric by 2032, along with at least 13% plug-in hybrids or other partially electric cars, the EPA said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
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