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GHG Ruling Opens Door for EPA Limits
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last week declared that greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles and industrial facilities are a danger to human health, a first step the agency must take along the path to regulations limiting the levels of combustion by-products from tailpipes.
While it was unclear how EPA’s “endangerment” finding might directly affect trucking, Glen Kedzie, vice president and environmental affairs counsel for American Trucking Associations, said regulation of truck greenhouse gas emissions is likely at some point.
“We do know this: Fuel economy standards are going to happen for our industry, regardless of the endangerment finding,” Kedzie said. “EPA is also working on approaches on how to establish a carbon metric and how to regulate carbon emissions from mobile sources.”
If congressional mandates are followed, a fuel efficiency or fuel economy rule could become effective for heavy trucking as soon as model year 2016, Kedzie said.
The House already has passed a cap-and-trade bill to reduce carbon emissions. However, if the Senate does not pass a climate change bill, the Obama administration made it clear it would move forward with its own regulations to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson announced the endangerment finding at a Dec. 7 news conference. The announcement does not impose any new requirements on industry, Jackson said at the time, but it “is the prerequisite for strong new emissions standards for cars and trucks: the ones the president announced last spring.”