Third phase of EPA’s Clean Trucks Plan

Posted April 21, 2023

The first set of proposed standards, “Multi-Pollutant Emissions Standards for Model Years 2027 and Later Light-Duty and Medium Duty Vehicles,” builds on EPA’s existing emissions standards for passenger cars and light trucks for MYs 2023 through 2026.

The second set of proposed standards, “Greenhouse Gas Standards for Heavy-Duty Vehicles - Phase 3,” would apply to heavy-duty vocational vehicles like delivery trucks, refuse haulers or dump trucks, public utility trucks, transit, shuttle, school buses and trucks used to haul freight.

Both would complement the criteria pollutant standards for MY 2027 and beyond heavy-duty vehicles that EPA finalized in December 2022 and represent the third phase of EPA’s Clean Trucks Plan. The proposal is projected to avoid 1.8 billion tons of carbon dioxide through 2055.

EPA proposed the following actions:

• Adding warranty requirements for batteries and other components of zero-emission vehicles requiring customer-facing battery state-of-health monitors for plug-in hybrid and battery electric vehicles.
• Revisions to certain highway heavy-duty vehicle provisions of 40 CFR 1037 and certain test procedures for heavy-duty engines in 40 CFR 1036 and 1065.
• Revisions to regulations addressing preemption of state regulation of new locomotives and new engines used in locomotives, to more closely align with language in the Clean Air Act.

This article was written by Jessica Stengel of J. J. Keller & Associates, Inc.