Advertisement
Supported by
The latest in a series of ambitious weather forecasts aims to blank out the biggest polluters on the roads. But truckers are worried.
By Coral Davenport and Jack Ewing
Coral Davenport reported on climate policy, and Jack Ewing covered the auto industry for about two decades.
Biden’s leadership on Friday announced regulations designed to boost sales of heavy-duty electric vehicles or other zero-emission heavy-duty vehicles, from school buses to concrete mixers, as part of his multifaceted attack on global warming.
The Environmental Protection Agency predicts that the new rule may mean that 25 percent of new long-haul trucks, the heaviest on the road, and 40 percent of medium-sized trucks such as vans and lawn vehicles could be non-polluting until 2032. Less than 2% of new heavy-duty trucks sold in the U. S. U. S. companies meet those criteria.
The rules would apply to more than 100 types of vehicles, including tractor-trailers, ambulances, RVs, garbage trucks and moving vans.
The standard does not require the sale of electric trucks or any other type of low- or zero-emission trucks. Rather, it increasingly limits the amount of contaminants allowed through trucks in a manufacturer’s product line over time, starting with the 2027 model year. It would be up to the manufacturer how to comply with it. Options can come simply with the use of technologies such as hybrids or hydrogen fuel cells or, in particular, extending the fuel power of traditional trucks.
The trucking regulations are in line with the rule enacted last week and designed to ensure that the majority of new passenger cars and trucks sold in the U. S. will be able to meet the needs of the truck. The number of U. S. companies will be fully electric or hybrid through 2032, up from just 7. 6% last year.
Together, the regulations for cars and trucks aim to reduce carbon dioxide pollutants from transportation, the nation’s largest source of climate-changing fossil fuel emissions and have helped make 2023 the year on record. Electric cars are at the center of President Biden’s strategy to fight global warming, which calls for halving the country’s emissions by the end of this decade.
We are retrieving the content of the article.
Please allow javascript in your browser settings.
Thank you for your patience as we determine access. If you’re in Reader mode, log out and log in to your Times account or subscribe to the full Times.
Thank you for your patience as we determine access.
Are you already a subscriber? Log in.
Want all the Times? Subscribe.
Advertising