EPA tightens rules on pollution from pickup trucks, buses and trucks

For the first time in decades, the agency has limited nitrogen dioxide emissions from heavy-duty vehicles.

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration on Tuesday tightened limits on smog-causing pollution from buses, delivery vans, tractor-trailers and other trucks, the first time in more than 20 years since exhaust standards have been tightened for heavy vehicles.

The Environmental Protection Agency's new rule is designed to reduce nitrogen oxide in vehicles by 48% by 2045. Nitrogen is a toxic gas that has been linked to cardiovascular problems and respiratory conditions like asthma. The rule will require manufacturers to reduce pollutants from their vehicles from the 2027 model year.

But the new rule is not as strict as the one proposed by the E.P.A. in March, which would have reduced the pollutant by 60% by 2045. And the agency did not require truck manufacturers to also reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with burning diesel fuel or convert their fleets to electric models.

That disappointed many environmental activists, who said federal rules for vans, buses and trucks should match government efforts. 'States like California and Washington that intend to phase out diesel fuel.

E.P.A. Administrator Michael Regan said that Regulations on greenhouse gas emissions from trucks would be released in the spring. He said publishing the two rules together would have taken longer and he felt urgent action was needed to limit nitrogen dioxide.

“It was important for us not to wait, but to move forward,” Mr. Regan said, noting that around 72 million people live within 200 meters of a truck route. pollution from trucks will prevent 3,000 premature deaths and up to 3 million cases of asthma.

This action is part of the broader goal of the administration to try to improve the conditions of communities that are disproportionately burdened by pollution.

"We know that these garbage trucks, tractor-trailers, delivery trucks , they flow through our neighborhoods and they impact children and families,” Regan said. He called the measure "very good when you think about the people of this country who are disproportionately exposed to diesel emissions and truck emissions".

José Miguel Acosta Córdova is one of them. Mr. Acosta Córdova, who lives in Chicago, said his family and neighbors suffer daily from asthma, heart problems and other consequences of living near truck traffic that overflows distribution warehouses. But Mr. Acosta Córdova, senior transportation policy analyst at the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization, said the new rule was not enough to help polluted communities like his.

California regulators this year began discussing whether to require owners of heavy-duty truck fleets to switch to zero-emission vehicles. Several other states have signed a multistate pact requiring the sale of 100 percent zero-emission trucks by 2050.

Trucking industry officials said that the new rule would be costly, especially for small truckers.

Jay Grimes, director of federal affairs for the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, said the requiring truck manufacturers to reduce emissions by 2027 was too aggressive.

He also argued that any rules requiring reductions in greenhouse gas emissions greenhouse would be expensive and that price would likely be passed on to the average consumer.

"Yes, we all want cleaner air, but if independent homeowners and small businesses can't afford the new trucks, they'll stay with the older trucks, which won't be as clean and efficient,” Grimes said. While the new rule requires new models built after 2027 to be built with stronger nitrogen...