Obama Administration Proposes New Standards For Big Trucks

WASHINGTON—The Obama administration Friday proposed new standards for big trucks aimed at lowering fuel costs and cutting carbon emissions as part of President Barack Obama's broad climate-change agenda.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Transportation Department jointly announced a suite of draft standards for big vehicles ranging from garbage trucks to 18-wheelers to vans and buses to heavy-duty pickup trucks.

"We're delivering big time on President Obama's call to cut carbon pollution," EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said Friday in a statement. "With emission reductions weighing in at 1 billion tons, this proposal will save consumers, businesses and truck owners money; and at the same time spur technology innovation and job-growth, while protecting Americans' health and our environment over the long haul."

The administration is proposing two broad categories of standards, one for the front part of big trucks, called tractors, and one for trailers that big semi-trucks and other trucks haul.

The tractor standard will require that a truck built in 2021 and beyond will be up to 24% more fuel efficient and emit up to 24% fewer carbon emissions than an equivalent truck built in 2018, according to EPA.

In addition to those standards, EPA and the Transportation Department are also, for the first time ever, regulating trailers that are part of 18-wheelers and other big hauling trucks, which will apply to certain models beginning in 2018 through 2027. This would save an additional 8% in fuel and carbon emissions compared with an average trailer built in 2017, EPA says.

The rules are a follow-up to the first-ever federal standards for big trucks that the Obama administration announced in 2011 that apply to models built between 2014 and 2018. EPA says these kinds of big trucks account for 20% of greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector but account for 5% of all vehicles on the road. Big trucks make up about 6% of overall U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, according to EPA.

The draft standards, expected to be complete sometime next year after a public comment period, are part of a broader regulatory push by the Obama administration to address climate change in the absence of congressional action and to cement the issue as a legacy of Mr. Obama's time in the White House.

The trucking industry has been generally supportive of these standards, in large part because they help save companies in fuel money, one of the biggest costs the sector faces.

"Cummins supports the proposed [EPA and Transportation Department] rule and believes it will help our industry grow in a more sustainable way, which is a win for our customers and win for the environment," said Tom Linebarger, chairman and chief executive of Cummins Inc., one of the world's largest manufacturers of diesel engines.

EPA said Friday the industry could recoup its costs in two years for certain trucks with trailers, and between three and six years for smaller trucks, including vans and buses.

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