REACTIONS TO HEAVY TRUCK EMISSIONS RULE: The Environmental Protection Agency finalized a rule Friday regulating tailpipe emissions for heavy duty vehicles – finishing up a set of rules meant to boost electric vehicles while combating climate change. In early reviews, the industry groups are finding fault with the intensity of the regulation, while climate hawks are praising the provision.
Here’s a rundown of the most notable reactions:
The freight industry: The Clean Freight Coalition, a trucking trade group advocating for a transition away from fossil fuels within the sector, argued that the pace of EV adoption targeted in the new rule wasn’t possible due to the limits of today’s technology. The group said the rule will have “detrimental ramifications” to the commercial vehicle industry, both small and large businesses, and consumers.
Their critiques: “Today, these vehicles fail to meet the operational demands of many motor carrier applications, reduce the payload of trucks and thereby require more trucks to haul the same amount of freight, and lack sufficient charging and alternative fueling infrastructure to support adoption,” said Jim Mullen, the coalition’s executive director. “In addition, battery electric motorcoaches have a reduced range and capacity compared to diesel buses. These commercial vehicles are in their infancy and are just now being tested and validated with real world-miles.”
Instead of the regulations the EPA is enacting, the coalition is advocating for policymakers to support lower-carbon alternatives to diesel fuel, such as biodiesel and renewable diesel, to enable progress on reducing emissions. The mandates, they said, could keep older commercial vehicles on the road longer, therefore stunting the growth in carbon reductions.
The auto industry at large: The American Trucking Association opposed the rule, arguing that the Biden administration’s goals for 67% of new vehicles to be electric by 2032 “remain entirely unachievable” due to the current state of renewable technologies, the lack of charging infrastructure, and restrictions on the power grid.
While the ATA acknowledged that the rule includes some relief in the form of lower zero-emission vehicle rates for model years 2027-2029, the group asserted that it will nevertheless only steer investment toward battery electric and hydrogen vehicles by forcing high penetration rates – which measure how much a product is being used by customers in a market – for those options in the later years.
“Given the wide range of operations required of our industry to keep the economy running, a successful emission regulation must be technology neutral and cannot be one-size-fits-all,” said ATA President and CEO Chris Spear. “Any regulation that fails to account for the operational realities of trucking will set the industry and America’s supply chain up for failure.”
The climate hawks: Green groups and climate hawks applauded the new regulations, calling them a win for low-income communities and minorities who are disproportionately affected by poor air quality.
“This rule is a win-win. It will support the United States in reaching our climate goals while protecting the public health of Americans across the country,” Democratic Sens. Tom Carper, Ed Markey, Alex Padilla, and Martin Heinrich said in a joint statement. “This rule will benefit disadvantaged communities located near freight corridors, which are disproportionately exposed to air pollution, and the millions of children who are currently riding dirty diesel buses to school each day.”
Some background: As Nancy outlines, the finalized rule will enact stronger tailpipe emission standards for vehicles such as freight trucks and buses that are created between 2027 and 2032. The finalized regulation offers flexibility for manufacturers to meet the standards in the early years of the program as technologies develop.
The Biden administration also introduced a rule regulating tailpipe emissions from light and medium-duty vehicles. Read about that here.
A disapproval resolution in the works: Congressional Republicans are looking to introduce disapproval resolutions to overturn both of the tailpipe emission rules under the Congressional Review Act. Sen. Pete Ricketts and Rep. John James will introduce the resolution to overturn the light and medium-duty vehicles rule, while Sen. Dan Sullivan and Russ Fulcher will introduce the resolution to challenge the heavy-duty vehicles rule.
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ADMINISTRATION ISSUES FINAL RULE TO RESTORE ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT PROTECTIONS: The Biden administration finalized new rules yesterday aimed at restoring stronger Endangered Species Act protections, reversing many Trump-era rollbacks, even as some environmental groups criticized the Biden administration for failing to act aggressively enough.
What it does: The Biden administration’s final rule restores “blanket rule” protections under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) to species classified as “threatened”— a less severe category than “endangered.” It also axes Trump-era language that allowed for the consideration of economic impacts in ESA protection criteria.
These revisions will allow administration officials to use “all of the tools available to help halt declines and stabilize populations of the species most at-risk,” U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Martha Williams told reporters.
Public engagement has been high: The proposed rule was published last year and received more than 450,000 public comments in the months since—among the highest amount of public engagement on a proposed regulation.
But the response to the final rule has been mixed: While some groups praised the Biden administration’s removal of the economic impact provision, which EarthJustice vice president Drew Caputo described as “directly contrary to the spirit of the [ESA] statute,” others criticized the decision to leave in a provision that allows agencies to disregard impacts they are not “reasonably certain” will occur.
“This was a massive missed opportunity to address the worsening extinction crisis,” Center for Biological Diversity senior policy analyst Stephanie Kurose said in a statement, noting that “of the 31 harmful changes made in 2019 to the act’s regulations,” only seven were “fully addressed” in the new final regulation. Read more on that here.
RUSSIA’S NOVAK ADDRESSES DIESEL BAN AND LNG EXPORT STATUS: Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said today that there is no need for Russia to ban diesel exports following a series of drone attacks on the country’s energy infrastructure that have tightened supplies and pushed up domestic prices—describing the fuel situation in Moscow as “stable,” despite reports that the attacks resulted in a 14% reduced oil refining capacity.
“The situation in the oil products market is stable today,” Novak told reporters of the situation, adding that undamaged refineries across Russia have boosted their capacity to make up for the shortfall. “Our companies have already increased the load at the available capacities. It allowed for more supply, including… gasoline and diesel fuel.”
Separately, Novak updated reporters on the status of Arctic LNG 2, the sprawling LNG export hub originally expected to begin shipments in the first quarter of 2024. The facility is a key to Russia’s goal of gaining one-fifth of global LNG market share within the next 10 years.
Asked today about the timeline of the project—which has since been delayed by sanctions, as well as the difficulty of securing LNG tankers—Novak declined to give an exact start date, but said the project owner Novatek is “dealing with the issues,” and that “corresponding talks are underway.”
“Their main problem is with the tankers,” he added. Read more from Reuters here.
COLONIAL PIPELINE DELAYS SHUTDOWN OF BALTIMORE SEGMENT AFTER BRIDGE COLLAPSE: Colonial Pipeline said today it is delaying the shutdown of a small section of its fuel pipeline in North Baltimore, citing an “abundance of caution” following the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge earlier this week.
The delay will stretch at least through May 1, Colonial said in a note obtained by Reuters.
The announcement from Colonial, which operates the largest system of refined fuel pipelines in the U.S., comes as Baltimore’s dependence on piped deliveries has surged in the aftermath of Tuesday’s bridge collapse and subsequent closure of the city’s port.
Colonial also said it has been running supplies on its line into the port area at full capacity since Tuesday, and will prorate deliveries from April 9 through April 16.
MEANWHILE, RESPONSE AND RECOVERY EFFORTS CONTINUE: The Transportation Department announced the approval of $60 million in emergency funding to aid in Baltimore’s bridge recovery and rebuilding efforts—the first step in what officials acknowledged will be a lengthy and difficult process to reopen.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg described the $60 million from the FHWA Emergency Relief program as a “down payment” for the recovery and rebuilding process. Both Buttigieg and President Joe Biden have noted additional federal funds will be needed, though they will likely be subject to congressional approval and therefore potential delay.
Shipping traffic in the Port of Baltimore has been halted indefinitely, though officials have stressed that reopening it as quickly—and as safely—as possible is crucial. The port receives up to $200 million in goods daily and employs some 15,000 people. Combined, officials said they could stand to lose an estimated $2 million in wages per day for the duration of the port closure.
Next steps: Speaking last night at a press conference, U.S. Coast Guard officials and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore outlined the many steps ahead in the extraction and recovery process for the collapsed bridge. This will involve both clearing the Dali—a massive container ship nearly as long as the Eiffel Tower—from the water, and then cutting up and dismantling the bridge, which sits beneath it, into pieces for extraction. The effort will be aided further by what officials said is the largest crane on the Eastern Seaboard, which arrived this morning in the Port of Baltimore to help clear the wreckage.
But officials have not yet given an estimated timeline for ship channel and reopening, which will be coordinated by both the U.S. Coast Guard and the Army Corps of Engineers.
“We have a very long road ahead of us,” Moore told reporters last night.
COURT STRIKES DOWN BIDEN CLIMATE HIGHWAY RULE FOR STATES: A federal judge in Texas struck down a Biden administration rule yesterday that would require states and cities to set declining emissions targets for vehicles using the national highway system, siding with the Republican attorneys general in asserting the administration lacked the proper authority to enact the rule.
At issue was a rule finalized by the Transportation Department’s Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) in December requiring states to establish declining targets for transportation-based emissions.
The rule also requires them to measure and report their progress in achieving these targets, which Texas and more than a dozen other Republican attorneys general argued was an overstep of federal authority.
U.S. District Judge James Wesley Hendrix, a Trump appointee, sided with the GOP-led states in his ruling, saying he agreed with their assertion that the agency lacked the authority to enact environmental benchmarks in their assessment of states’ highway performance.
The “performance of the Interstate/National Highway Systems” refers to the infrastructure’s “effectiveness in facilitating travel, commerce, and national defense,” Hendrix said, “not environmental outputs of vehicles using the systems.” Read more on that here.
RUNDOWN
Washington Post Baltimore port workers are ‘living in a dream’ as harbor remains blocked
Financial Times Indonesia to accelerate nickel output despite low global prices