The Obama administration is set to propose Friday new standards for big trucks aimed at lowering fuel costs and cutting carbon emissions as part of President Barack Obama's broad climate-change agenda.The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Transportation Department will announce a suite of draft standards for big trucks, including garbage trucks, 18-wheelers and heavy-duty pickup trucks, according to a person familiar with the proposal.
The standards will apply to big trucks built after 2018 and are a follow-up to the first-ever federal standards for big trucks that the Obama administration announced in 2011 that apply to models built between 2014 and 2018.
The standards will also, for the first time ever, regulate trailers that are part of 18-wheelers and other big hauling trucks and issue tougher limits on the part of the truck hauling the trailer, called the tractor, according to multiple industry officials.
The draft standards, expected to be complete sometime next year after a public comment period, are part of a broader regulatory push by the Obama administration to address climate change in the absence of congressional action and to cement the issue as a legacy of Mr. Obama's time in the White House.
Unlike many other environmental rules out of the Obama administration, the trucking industry has been generally supportive of these standards, in large part because they help save companies in fuel money, one of the biggest costs the sector faces.
"It's a good thing for our companies with certain caveats," said Glen Kedzie, a vice president at the American Trucking Associations, a coalition representing more than 35,000 member companies that are part of or dependent upon the trucking industry that hauls goods around the U.S. "We want to see a return on our investment within 18 months with anything that we purchase that we put on a tractor or trailer."
EPA has said the industry could recoup its costs within that time frame.
The Diesel Technology Forum, a nonprofit organization devoted to clean diesel technologies, said in a statement Thursday the rules could help spur cleaner technologies.
"Today's new generation of clean diesel technology offers better fuel economy and better performance that translates into greater savings for truckers-and cleaner air for all Americans," said Allen Schaeffer, the executive director of the group.