The Environmental Protection Agency today set strict emissions standards for heavy-duty trucks, buses, and other large vehicles, according to the Associated Press. Officials say the action will help clean up some of the nation’s largest sources of planet-warming greenhouse gases.
The new rules, which take effect for model years 2027–2032, will avoid up to 1 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions over the next three decades and provide $13 billion in net benefits in the form of fewer hospital visits, lost work days, and deaths, the EPA said. The new standards will especially benefit an estimated 72 million people in the United States who live near freight routes used by trucks and other heavy vehicles.
The new rules for heavy trucks and buses come a week after the EPA announced new automobile emissions standards for passenger vehicles. Those rules relax initial tailpipe limits proposed last year but get close to the same strict standards set out by the EPA for model year 2032.
The new rules for cars and trucks also come as sales of EVs, which are needed to meet both standards, have begun to slow.
