EPA plans to repeal emission standards for truck components

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: Washington Post

EPA plans to repeal emission standards for truck components

By Juliet Eilperin October 23 at 3:17 PM

The Environmental Protection Agency is seeking to repeal tighter emissions standards for truck components, a rule adopted in the final months of the Obama administration aimed at controlling traditional air pollutants as well as greenhouse-gas emissions linked to climate change. ... EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, who privately met in May with the manufacturer that stands to benefit most from the rules repeal, suggested in August that he would reexamine the rule in light of the significant issues raised and see whether it is consistent with the agencys authority under the Clean Air Act. ... The Office of Management and Budget has posted a notice saying that on Saturday it received the proposal to rescind the rule. Asked about the regulation, EPA spokesman Michael Abboud said in an email, EPA does not comment on items under interagency review.

Unlike some Obama-era regulations, the rule, which is scheduled to take effect Jan. 1, has been widely embraced by the trucking industry. ... The rule applies the standards now used for heavy-duty trucks to new truck components called gliders and trailers. A glider, or body, is the front of a truck, including the cab, which fits over the engine. Trailers are the storage components that make up most of the length of a truck.

Currently, trucking companies can install outdated engines into a new truck body and avoid regulations that would apply to an entirely new truck. Engine manufacturers and public health advocates are in favor of closing that loophole and applying pollution controls uniformly. Heavy-duty trucks have faced tighter emissions standards since 2004, though they have become more stringent over time, thereby widening the gap between new ones and truck bodies that contain older engines.

On Sept. 11, executives from three major heavy-truck and engine manufacturers Volvo Group North America, Cummins and Navistar wrote Pruitt urging him not to reopen the rule. It noted that the three companies were joining with the Truck and Engine Manufacturers Association, the American Trucking Associations and the Truck Rental and Leasing Association in voicing their concerns about the move. ... Glider kits, the three companies argued in their letter, should not be used for circumventing purchase of currently certified power trains. ... Pruitt met at EPA headquarters on May 8 with officials from Fitzgerald Truck Sales, the nations largest manufacturer of gliders, according to his schedule. Officials from the company, which has lobbied to repeal the rule, did not respond to a call requesting comment.
....

Juliet Eilperin is The Washington Post's senior national affairs correspondent, covering how the new administration is transforming a range of U.S. policies and the federal government itself. She is the author of two books—one on sharks, and another on Congress, not to be confused with each other—and has worked for the Post since 1998. Follow @eilperin

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/epa-may-repeal-emission-standards-for-truck-components/2017/10/23/993170a0-b814-11e7-9e58-e6288544af98_story.html

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I'll see your EPA and raise you one.

[Cryptoad]

1. Clean Air,,,,, we dont need no stinking Clean Air!

[mdbl]

2. who gives a shit if we can breathe

Assholes! That's the only word that fits these people.

[jmowreader]

3. Some confusion here as to what a glider kit is

A glider is not "the front of a truck, including the cab, which fits over the engine." It is a complete truck sold without an engine.

Strangely enough, there is a perfectly justifiable reason for gliders: as repair parts. Truck drivers occasionally total their rigs without damaging the engines. If the company can bring the wreck back to the shop, pull the still-good engine and put it in a new truck, they can save a LOT of money. And most gliders are sold for exactly this purpose.

The problem is, no law prevents a truck dealer from buying a glider, installing a pre-emissions engine in it and selling it as a new truck. I present proof: http://www.commercialtrucktrader.com/Class-8-Heavy-Duty-Glider-Kit-Trucks-For-Sale/search-results?type=class8&category=Glider+Kit|644247323

How to fix the rule: require anyone purchasing a glider to prove they have a wrecked truck the engine's coming out of, and require the dealer to deliver the truck to the customer without the engine installed.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

4. Thanks. If you can, why not comment at the story itself as well? NT

[jmowreader]

6. I'd have to subscribe...probably should, anyway

[Aristus]

5. I guess we're in for another round of truckers modifying their pickups with

those extra-polluting black-smoke exhaust kits that were popular for a while when Barack Obama was President.

[jmowreader]

7. Under Trump, DPF bypass pipes will probably become mandatory

[snooper2]

8. That is not how that works