Clean Freight Coalition sees light at end of Trump’s deregulation tunnel
The Clean Freight Coalition is closely monitoring trucking’s emission standards rollback under President Donald Trump. The coalition’s leader said the deregulation push will help the industry continue on its path to cleaner trucks while pulling back on “overly burdensome” rules allowed under President Joe Biden.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency administrator targeted several federal emissions regulations that impact trucking companies and manufacturers. These include:
- Heavy-duty greenhouse gas emissions rule, also known as GHG3
- 2009 endangerment finding that allows EPA to regulate greenhouse gas emissions
- Heavy-duty NOx rule
Jim Mullen, executive director of the CFC, a coalition of trucking industry trade organizations critical of the latest emissions rules, told FleetOwner that reduced regulations will allow zero- and near-zero-emissions transportation technology to develop based on market needs that eventually give fleets better choices.
“When I talk to a lot of fleet executives, that’s how they look at it,” he said during the Truckload Carriers Associations’ annual convention in Phoenix on March 18. “A lot of them weren’t looking at other technologies because of the mandates they were facing. If the mandates are reversed or rescinded, I think they’ll look at alternatives.”
Those alternatives include natural gas and other biofuels that were left out of federal and local rulemaking that focused more on regulating diesel or encouraging battery-electric adoption, which has yet to prove itself as an efficient replacement for most diesel operations.
What greenhouse gas emissions rules will look like under Trump
While EPA’s administrator said the agency will “reconsider” emissions regulations, the trucking industry does not know how far—or how quickly—that rollback could go.
“For GHG3, what we believe they plan to do is to pause it at GHG Phase 2 standards for now,” Mullen said. “There was discussion on maybe doing an enforcement decision as it relates to GHG3—but they generally don’t do enforcement decisions on a forward-looking regulation.”
Mullen, who served in the first Trump administration, said the EPA will hold at GHG2 standards until “we get closer to 2027.”
He briefed industry media on his perspective of the new Trump administration’s push to roll back environmental regulations. Mullen was acting administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration from 2019 to 2020.
Why the EPA’s endangerment finding is in danger
The EPA’s 2009 endangerment finding gave the agency authority to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said his agency is reevaluating all regulations that rely on the finding.
“EPA only regulates GHG because of the endangerment finding—if they rescind that, then they no longer have the authority to regulate [GHG] emissions,” Mullen said. “That decision, that process, I know, has been in the works for years. It’s fair to say that since [the first] Trump administration left office, they’ve been working on this very plan.”
Zeldin only announced that EPA would reconsider the finding but made clear his contempt for climate change science.
“I’ve been told the endangerment finding is considered the ‘holy grail’ of the climate change religion,” Zeldin said during his announcement. “For me, the U.S. Constitution and the laws of this nation will be strictly interpreted and followed. No exceptions. Today, the Green New Scam ends as the EPA does its part to usher in the golden age of American success.”
Heavy-duty NOx rule’s future comes down to costs
Mullen said that EPA’s reevaluation of the heavy-duty NOx rule will focus on its warranty provision, which manufacturers, the CFC, and other trucking groups have called “overly burdensome, overly costly, and provides little environmental benefit.”
The EPA’s 2027 NOx rule was developed during Trump’s first term and finalized during President Joe Biden’s administration. It focuses on tailpipe emissions for model year 2027 equipment and beyond. Industry estimates believe the regulation could drive up truck prices by $20,000 to $30,000 thanks to increased diesel treatment technology and warranty requirements.
Hope for Congress to focus on California waiver and FET repeal
Mullen also offered an update on the EPA’s procedural move to limit how California can regulate truck emissions. The Biden administration granted multiple waivers allowing the Golden State to enforce its own new emissions rules, undoing the first Trump administration’s work to limit the California Air Resources Board’s emissions autonomy.
Using the Congressional Review Act, Zeldin submitted reports to Congress about the EPA waivers allowing California’s Advanced Clean Trucks, Heavy-Duty Omnibus, and Advanced Clean Cars II rules. Before Trump returned to office, California stopped seeking a waiver that would have allowed it to create a heavy-duty EV mandate.
Omnibus and ACT are CARB’s most impactful regulations on trucking. The Heavy-Duty Omnibus, which sets historically low standards for pollutants such as NOx, received an EPA waiver in December during Biden’s final weeks in office. ACT, which enforces a zero-emission vehicle sales requirement for heavy-duty OEMs, obtained its EPA waiver in March 2023.
The submitted reports allow Congress the opportunity to revoke those waivers through the CRA. Mullen said that Congress could get a chance to decide on the review around Easter in late April. But it might be hung up over parliamentary procedures.
“Obviously, we are very supportive of the CRA being triggered and a dissolution motion to rescind the waivers—and we’re advocating on that as well,” Mullen said.
Trucking industry gets behind Transportation Freedom Act
He also praised a recent bill by Senator Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) that would cut electric vehicle mandates like California’s and weaken federal transportation and emissions regulations.
Major manufacturers, such as General Motors, Stellantis, and Toyota, have backed Moreno’s Transportation Freedom Act. The National Automobile Dealers Association, which includes the American Truck Dealers trade group, also supports it.
Chris Spear, who heads the American Trucking Associations, also backed the Moreno bill. ATA points out that modern Class 8 trucks emit less than 2% of the pollutants, not counting greenhouse gases, compared to 1988 models.
“The trucking industry has proven our commitment to reducing our environmental footprint, but in recent years, some regulators have turned their backs on the collaborative model that made this monumental progress possible,” Spear said in February. “The trucking industry commends Senator Bernie Moreno for introducing the Transportation Freedom Act, which would restore commonsense at EPA and put an end to states like California creating a patchwork of unachievable timelines and targets.”
Spear added that the legislation would “allow innovation to flourish and foster achievable national standards that put us back on the path to lowering emissions without causing supply chain disruptions.”
