RALEIGH – North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein has joined a dozen other state attorneys general and others in demanding that the Environmental Protection Agency reverse an order that suspended a 2016 rule on truck emissions.
The order issued on former EPA administrator Scott Pruitt’s final day in office suspended the 2016 Glider Rule for a year. The Glider Rule mandates that most engines installed in “gliders,” or new heavy-duty truck bodies outfitted with refurbished or rebuilt pre-2010 engines, meet the same emissions standards as newly manufactured engines.
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The EPA said the rule to repeal the emission standards and other requirements for heavy-duty glider vehicles, glider engines and glider kits was based on a proposed interpretation of the Clean Air Act under which glider vehicles would not be considered new motor vehicles.
“I oppose the EPA’s dirty truck loophole and I’m urging the EPA to withdraw it,” said Attorney General Josh Stein in a statement. “Not only will this rule make our air dirtier, it is unfair to Greensboro’s own Volvo Trucks and Mack Trucks, which play by the rules with their cleaner truck engines.”
The trucking industry has complained that EPA mandates have resulted in engines that are prone to expensive problems including poor fuel mileage and mechanical breakdowns.
The attorneys general say the suspension of the rule allows the sale of trucks that produce 20 to 40 times more emissions of hazardous pollutants than new, more fuel-efficient trucks, according to the statement. Stein’s office said the trucking industry faces an uneven playing field if new truck manufacturers are forced to compete against unregulated, high-polluting glider manufacturers.
Stein in submitting this letter joined the attorneys general of California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Vermont and Washington. The California Air Resources Board and Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection are also part of the coalition.
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