Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin announced on Wednesday that the agency is reviewing emissions rules put in place under the Biden-Harris administration. The announcement was part of 31 other actions the agency is undertaking from the Trump administration’s flurry of day-one executive orders.
Included in the announcements, the EPA plans to take aim at the previous administration’s Clean Trucks Plan, which included rules on nitrous oxide emissions from heavy-duty trucks. This move, part of what Zeldin calls the “greatest and most consequential day of deregulation in U.S. history,” aims to dismantle what critics referred to as the Biden-Harris “electric vehicle mandate.”
Zeldin added: “The American auto industry has been hamstrung by the crushing regulatory regime of the last administration. As we reconsider nearly one trillion dollars of regulatory costs, we will abide by the rule of law to protect consumer choice and the environment.”
The regulations under review were designed to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles, effectively pushing the auto industry toward widespread adoption of electric vehicles. However, the current EPA leadership argues these rules imposed over $700 billion in regulatory and compliance costs on the industry and consumers.
The Model Year 2027 and Later Light-Duty and Medium-Duty Vehicles Regulation and Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standards for Heavy-Duty Vehicles were part of an EPA final rulemaking announced on March 20, 2024, and amended on June 17, 2024.
For trucking and the heavy-duty vehicle space, the finalized EPA rulemaking, better known as Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standards for Heavy-Duty Vehicles – Phase 3, began with model year 2027 trucks and extended through 2032. It was part of a broader goal to increase the use of advanced internal combustion, hybrid, battery-electric and fuel cell technologies to reduce emissions.
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