The Washington Post reports that the Biden administration plans to approve new California rules to cut tailpipe pollution and phase out sales of diesel-burning trucks.
The Environmental Protection Agency intends to grant California “waivers” to enforce environmental rules that are significantly tougher than federal requirements and that state regulators have already approved, said these individuals, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the announcement was not yet public.The new policies could have a profound effect on the air Californians breathe. Heavy-duty trucks account for nearly a third of the state’s smog-forming nitrogen oxide and more than a quarter of its fine particle pollution from diesel fuel. Both of these harmful pollutants are linked to asthma, other respiratory illnesses and premature death. Environmental advocates on behalf of Black and Latino Californians, who are more likely to live near ports, huge warehouse complexes and major highways, have long pleaded with the state’s regulators to strengthen pollution limits on the trucks whose fumes waft through their neighborhoods. Climate activists have echoed these demands.The rules could also have national significance. Six other states, which together with California represent about 20 percent of the nation’s heavy-duty vehicle sales, have already committed to follow California’s tougher standards. But because of the way the Clean Air Act works, California and those other states cannot put their plans into action until the EPA grants the state a waiver.
Yes, the rules will have national significance….in the form of unintended consequences of Big Government micro-managing economic choices. As the CEO of Toyota recently noted, the technology and resources are not there to support this move.
“People involved in the auto industry are largely a silent majority,” [Toyota Motor chief Akio] Toyoda said. “That silent majority is wondering whether EVs are really OK to have as a single option. But they think it’s the trend so they can’t speak out loudly.”“Because the right answer is still unclear, we shouldn’t limit ourselves to just one option,” he added.
Still, they persist.
And the Biden administration is pumping a lot of fuel into this effort:
Medium-to-heavy commercial vehicles are responsible for an estimated 25% of the transportation industry’s carbon emissions.To make progress on U.S. target decarbonization goals, the Biden Administration, states and municipalities are allocating unprecedented resources to accelerate fleet electrification. The federal tax incentives for commercial EV charging stations and fleets under the Inflation Reduction Act coincide with the State of California’s mandate to eliminate new purchases of diesel trucks by 2040, with a recent January 1st deadline that bans the operation of pre-2010 Class 4 through Class 8 diesel trucks.In support of these policies and the rising market demand, automakers like Ford, Volvo, and General Motors (through its subsidiary Brightdrop) have begun to offer medium-to-heavy electric vehicles capable of 100 to 300 miles per charge for purchase for any use case.
Actual experts in the trucking industry are deeply troubled by this move.
The Truck and Engine Manufacturers Association, which represents a coalition of more than 30 truck and bus manufacturers, has argued that the new rules would force manufacturers to delay the purchase of new vehicles due to increased costs for electronic heavy-duty vehicles, according to the Post. In turn, this would incentivize truckers to leave less efficient cars on the road for longer, hindering the environmental benefits, the group argues.“Our industry hopes these reports aren’t true,” President and CEO Chris Spear of the American Trucking Association told the DCNF [Daily Caller News Foundation] in a statement. Spear stressed that the industry had reduced emissions by 98% since 1998, and that it had worked closely with the EPA to develop “aggressive, achievable” emissions reductions timelines for decades.“If the reports are in fact accurate, let us remind you that this isn’t the United States of California,” said Spear. “The state and federal regulators collaborating on this unrealistic patchwork of regulations have no grasp on the real costs of designing, building, manufacturing and operating the trucks that deliver their groceries, clothes and goods, but they will certainly feel the pain when these fanciful projections lead to catastrophic disruptions well beyond California’s borders.”
I hope to flee California by 2035; I certainly hope there is somewhere I can go not degraded by the pseudoscience-based polices of Golden State progressives.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY