Pruitt Reopens Emissions Loophole for Worst Polluting Trucks

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today, the Environmental Protection Agency reopened -- with intent to repeal -- a portion of the emissions rule for heavy duty trucks. The repeal would declassify "glider kits" as new vehicles or engines, making them no longer subject to air pollution control requirements. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt announced his intent to revisit the glider loophole that was just closed in August of 2016.

“Glider trucks” are freight trucks with a used engine installed in an otherwise new frame. After pollution limits on heavy-duty freight engines were updated in 2010, glider trucks sold with old, dirty engines were dramatically more polluting than new trucks with modern engines.

Used engines in gliders can emit as much as 40 times the pollution of modern engines. If the glider truck loophole were left open until 2025, EPA estimates indicate that glider vehicles would comprise only 5% of the freight trucks on the road but would account for one third of all nitrogen oxides and particulate matter emissions from the heavy truck fleet, resulting in as many as 12,800 premature deaths.

The EPA is opening a public comment period on the proposed rule, due on January 5, 2018. The Agency will also hold a public hearing on the proposal on December 4, 2017.

In response, Sierra Club Deputy Legislative Director for Transportation  Andrew Linhardt released the following statement:

"Rather than protecting our air and climate, Donald Trump and Scott Pruitt are wasting taxpayer dollars trying to roll back standards limiting pollution from glider kit trucks, endangering the health and safety of American families and our climate. This is a blatant attempt by the Trump administration to rig the system for the glider industry at the expense of American families and jobs. Nothing has changed in the last year that warrants a reopening of this lifesaving rule. A rollback of the glider kit emission standards would endanger public health and safety.”