The EPA on Friday set strict emissions standards for heavy-duty trucks, buses, and other large vehicles, an action designed to boost sales of electric vehicles and clean up some of the nation's largest sources of planet-warming greenhouse gases, per the AP.
- The new rules, which take effect for model years 2027 through 2032, vary depending on the type of vehicle and use. For instance, 30% of "heavy-heavy-duty vocational" trucks would need to be zero-emission by 2032, the EPA said, while 40% of short-haul "day cabs" would need be zero emission vehicles. Fewer than 2% of heavy trucks sold today meet that standard, notes the New York Times.
- 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 and bear a disproportionate burden of dangerous air pollution, the agency said.