Nissa Koerner, nissa.koerner@sierraclub.org
Washington, DC -- Today, the Sierra Club, Center for Biological Diversity, and Environmental Defense Fund filed a request to EPA to withdraw its decision to cease enforcing the glider truck requirements.
After disgraced former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt announced his resignation for numerous ethical and legal violations, last Friday EPA’s Office of Enforcement announced that the agency will not be enforcing the glider truck requirements against glider manufacturers and their suppliers, in response to William Wehrum’s, who is now an Assistant Administrator at EPA, request to give them a free pass because the agency has not yet finalized a proposal to repeal these requirements. Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler, despite making claims and commitments to be different from his predecessor, has failed to act to remedy this dangerous decision.
“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.
In response, Sierra Club Chief Climate Counsel Joanne Spalding released the following statement:
“The wheels are already coming off Wheeler’s pledge to be different from Scott Pruitt’s infamous tenure as EPA administrator. Rather than halting Pruitt’s deadly and dangerous decision refusing to enforce the glider truck rule, Wheeler is maintaining the status quo by putting pollutants first and people, communities, and our planet last. We are acting today to ensure that Wheeler cannot follow Pruitt’s example by disregarding established law and processes as he seeks to ransack climate and public health safeguards. The name atop EPA may have changed, but the laws and rules protecting American families haven’t.”
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with more than 3 million members and supporters. In addition to helping people from all backgrounds explore nature and our outdoor heritage, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.