Wheeler Concedes Defeat on Glider Non-Enforcement Decision

Friday, July 27: Yesterday evening Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler reversed course and withdrew the agency's decision to not enforce requirements for glider trucks, which it issued on July 6.  On July 10, Sierra Club, represented by Joanne Spalding and Alejandra Núñez, Environmental Defense Fund, and Center for Biological Diversity filed a petition for review and an emergency motion before the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, asking the Court to summarily declare EPA’s "no action assurance" unlawful and vacate it, or else stay its effect pending review on the merits during the litigation.  On July 18, the Court granted a temporary stay of EPA's decision, ordering EPA to continue to enforce glider truck requirements while the parties brief the merits of the case. 

In a big win for the environment, yesterday Andrew Wheeler withdrew EPA's decision, acknowledging that the no action assurance violated the agency’s own policy, which provides that that mechanism should be used only in extremely unusual, narrow circumstances necessary to protect the public interest. Wheeler recognized that the application of the glider rule to the glider industry does not represent such circumstances.

 

Read the official Sierra Club press release here.