Trucking industry worries US EPA put 'cart before the horse' with emissions proposal

While onboard with ambitions to transition the US car fleet to electric vehicles, the heavy-duty trucking industry called out the Biden administration for attempting to extrapolate that push to its sector without regard for the complexities and operating conditions that come with moving 72% of the US economy's freight.

At issue is an Environmental Protection Agency proposal aimed at achieving a zero-emission freight sector more quickly. The third and final phase of the agency's Clean Trucks Plan would revise greenhouse gas emissions standards finalized in December for model year 2027 heavy-duty vehicles and create progressively more stringent standards for model years 2028 through 2032 for different subcategories of vocational vehicles and tractors.

The proposed standards are projected to boost model year 2032 zero-emission vehicle adoption rates for vocational trucks to 50%, for short-haul tractors to 35% and for long-haul tractors to 25%. The EPA also approved a waiver for California's Advanced Clean Trucks rule that promotes the phaseout of diesel-powered heavy-duty vehicles, with at least six other states taking steps to adopt that rule as well. By 2035, under that rule, zero-emission vehicles will need to make up 55% of Class 2b-3 truck sales, 75% of Class 4-8 straight truck sales and 40% of Class 7-8 semi-tractor sales.

Operational realities

"While we share the passion for EVs in cars and light-duty vehicles, projecting an automotive construct onto trucking industry dynamics is a massive mistake," Andrew Boyle, co-president of Boyle Transportation and first vice chairman of the American Trucking Associations, told lawmakers April 18. "If battery electric trucks had adequate range, there was adequate charging infrastructure, and utilities could deliver the power, we truckers would be delighted."

But that is not the reality he laid out for the Senate Environment and Public Works' clean air, climate and nuclear safety subcommittee. While a clean diesel truck can fuel up in 15 minutes anywhere in the country and get a range of about 1,200 miles, a long-haul electric truck could need up to 10 hours to charge, assuming charging infrastructure is even present, for a range of just 150-330 miles.

"We would need far more trucks to haul the same amount of freight, and each of those trucks would cost two to three times a comparable diesel truck," Boyle said. "Converting the US fleet of Class 8 trucks to battery electric would require a $1 trillion investment, which ultimately would flow to consumers."

Boyle contended that the consumer-facing EV product is so much further ahead as battery-powered heavy-duty trucks require at least two 8,000-lb batteries and cannot leverage any of the existing car charging infrastructure.

Further, he noted an attempt by one trucking company to build a facility for 30 electric trucks in Illinois that was essentially laughed at as city officials said that such a project would draw more electricity than the entire city currently uses.

"We have the cart before the horse right now," Boyle said.

'Unachievable regulations'

Subcommittee Ranking Member Pete Ricketts, Republican-Nebraska, agreed, calling EPA's tailpipe emissions proposal "burdensome" and "detached from reality."

"It restricts freedom, shrugs off the higher costs of electric vehicles while families are struggling, ignores supply chain and infrastructure challenges and disregards a better solution like American biofuels like ethanol," Ricketts said.

Still, Subcommittee Chairman Ed Markey, Democrat-Massachusetts, applauded the EPA's proposal for charting a new course and touted its ability to "protect drivers from volatile global oil prices, which are often influenced by the whims of dictators."

Boyle argued that "the trucking industry is not averse to change" and embraces opportunities to pursue alternative fuels and technologies but is "disappointed" with the EPA's approach.

For instance, the trucking industry was on track to reduce another 83% of NOx emissions by model year 2027 before the EPA announced it would reopen the rule underlying that standard, he said.

"How are manufacturers and fleets meant to comply with regulations that whimsically change with political preference?" he said.

He also took issue with the California rule for creating "a state patchwork that undermines federal leadership."

"We can't allow unrealistic timelines, a state patchwork and technically unachievable regulations to set trucking up for failure," he said. "Remember we deliver food, medicine, baby formula. Failure is not merely inconvenient, it's catastrophic."

Technology-neutral approach

Boyle added that incentives enacted in legislation to support the transition to clean vehicles, such as those operating on biodiesel or renewable diesel, barely covers the federal excise tax to purchase a heavy-duty truck.

"A big issue when you look at the emissions in aggregate right now is not so much that today's trucks aren't clean enough, it's just that of the fleet on the road, not enough are today's trucks," he said.

Innovation and collaboration between the industry and government on technically achievable national standards have seen today's clean diesel trucks produce 99% fewer emissions than those on the roads in the 1980s.

The National Association of Truckstop Operators and SIGMA, a fuel marketers association, pushed for a more technology-neutral approach to clean fuel incentive policies in a statement that accused the Biden administration of "repeatedly pick[ing] winners and losers using metrics that are untethered to emissions-reduction outcomes."

The groups, which represent 80% of fuel sold at retail, contend that the current policy direction fails to support diesel fuel alternatives like biodiesel and renewable diesel that are already commercially viable, yet is "overly focused on 'shiny' technologies that are decades away from being viable at scale."

"Renewable diesel production capacity is outpacing EPA's incentive structure that supports those fuels, and the Department of Treasury is in the process of implementing rules that will effectively cut off imports of cleaner alternatives to diesel fuel," David Fialkov, executive vice president of government affairs for both NATSO and SIGMA, said. "It's as though they're actively trying to increase emissions from the trucking sector."

Biofuel groups have similarly argued that the proposed tailpipe emissions standards missed the mark with their aggressive promotion of transitioning to EVs while ignoring biofuels' ability to provide an "immediate solution for reducing carbon emissions" in the transportation sector.

"The carbon footprint of certain battery electric vehicles operating on fossil-fuel generated electricity is no smaller -- and can sometimes be larger -- than the carbon footprint of modern internal combustion engine vehicles operating on today's ethanol-blended liquid fuels," Renewable Fuels Association President and CEO Geoff Cooper said in a letter sent to subcommittee leaders Markey and Ricketts. "It should not be assumed that an electric vehicle is a 'clean vehicle' or a 'zero emissions vehicle' simply because it does not have a tailpipe."