The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has issued final national greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution standards for heavy-duty vehicles, such as freight trucks and buses, for model years 2027 through 2032. These standards will avoid one billion tons of GHG emissions and provide $13 billion in annualized net benefits to society related to public health, the climate and savings for truck owners and operators.
The final standards will also reduce dangerous air pollution, especially for the 72 million people in the U.S. who live near truck freight routes, bear the burden of higher levels of pollution and are more likely to be people of color or come from low-income households.
The “Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standards for Heavy-Duty Vehicles — Phase 3” standards will provide greater certainty for industry, while catalyzing private investment, supporting U.S. manufacturing jobs in advanced vehicle technologies, and invigorating and strengthening the U.S. economy. Over the next decade, these final standards, paired with President Biden’s Investing in America agenda and investments in U.S. manufacturing, will set the nation’s heavy-duty sector on a trajectory for sustained growth.
EPA’s latest modeling shows that the final standards will result in greater reductions of pollution than the proposed rule, while providing more time and flexibility for manufacturers to develop, scale and deploy clean heavy-duty vehicle technologies. The one billion tons of GHG emissions avoided by these standards is equivalent to the emissions from more than 13 million tanker trucks’ worth of gasoline.
“In finalizing these emissions standards for heavy-duty vehicles like trucks and buses, EPA is significantly cutting pollution from the hardest-working vehicles on the road,” says EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan. “Building on our recently finalized rule for light- and medium-duty vehicles, EPA’s strong and durable vehicle standards respond to the urgency of the climate crisis by making deep cuts in emissions from the transportation sector.”
“EPA’s standards complement President Biden’s unprecedented investment in our workers and communities to reduce harmful emissions, while strengthening our manufacturing capacity for the transportation technologies of the future,” adds Biden’s National Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi. “By tackling pollution from heavy-duty vehicles, we can unlock extraordinary public health, climate and economic gains.”
Trucks and other heavy-duty vehicles are vital to the U.S. economy, transporting goods and freight and providing services for industry, transit and other sectors. At the same time, heavy-duty vehicles account for 25% of all GHG emissions from the transportation sector, which is itself the single largest source of such emissions in the nation. GHG emissions are the primary driver of climate change and its impacts, including more severe heat waves, drought, sea level rise, extreme climate and weather events, coastal flooding and catastrophic wildfires.
For more information on the rulemaking, visit EPA’s Final Rule: Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standards for Heavy-Duty Vehicles — Phase 3 website.
