EPA Unveils Clean Truck Standards

“Today the Environmental Protection Agency took another key step in our journey toward a future with less traffic pollution – a future that will deliver cleaner air for our children, healthier communities, and a safer climate.

“The EPA finalized climate pollution standards for new heavy-duty vehicles like freight trucks, garbage trucks, and school buses. EPA estimates these standards will slash a billion tons of climate pollution and more than 50,000 tons of smog-forming nitrogen oxides. And these clean truck standards are just the latest in a long line of actions the Biden administration has taken to address our traffic pollution – from the widely heralded clean car standards announced last week, to limits on smog-forming pollution from big trucks, to support for state leadership in addressing pollution from new cars and trucks, to billions in funding for cleaner ports, clean school buses, and tax credits to help people and fleets buy the clean vehicles they want.

“Like last week’s clean car standards, the clean truck standards will be performance based and technology neutral – so manufacturers will not be required to make any particular type of trucks. And like the clean car standards before them, the clean truck standards are expected to help supercharge American manufacturing and job creation, especially in the growing market for electric vehicles. Sales of new electric big trucks are already rising and many of our biggest companies have announced they are investing heavily in them. Truck manufacturers and fleets are among the many groups that have said they support strong clean truck standards.

“It all adds up to significant progress in addressing the climate crisis and giving our children a brighter, safer, healthier future. That is critically important to me, as a mom. I am grateful to everyone who has helped move us this far in the right direction, and I look forward to working together as we continue toward our destination – a pollution-free future for all.”

            - Amanda Leland, Executive Director of Environmental Defense Fund.