Environmental Protection Agency Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler Thursday reversed his predecessor Scott Pruitt's last major regulatory decision that had stopped enforcement of an Obama-era restriction on the manufacturing of trucks that use old engines built before modern emissions standards.
On Pruitt's last day, July 6, the EPA told manufacturers of glider trucks, which critics call "Super polluters," that the EPA would at least temporarily no longer enforce a 300-unit per company limit, allowing more of the trucks to be produced.
The EPA would do further study of the issue before deciding whether to continue a process started by Pruitt in November to permanently repeal restrictions on glider trucks.
In a memo to his deputies, first obtained by the New York Times, Wheeler said the EPA can only suspend enforcement of an agency rule in rare circumstances after consulting with EPA lawyers and policy experts.
The EPA in its own modeling has projected that so-called glider trucks emit 20 to 40 times as much of the pollutants nitrogen oxide and soot as trucks with new engines.
Pruitt's move to help Fitzgerald came after a university produced a study showing that pollution from glider trucks was the same as trucks with modern emissions controls, then reversed itself and asked the EPA to disregard the study.
Philip B. Oldham, the president of Tennessee Technological University, warned the EPA in April that "Experts within the university have questioned the methodology and accuracy" of the study, which was funded by Fitzgerald, the manufacturer of glider trucks.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/energy/new-epa-head-andrew-wheeler-reverses-scott-pruitts-parting-gift-to-polluting-trucks
On Pruitt's last day, July 6, the EPA told manufacturers of glider trucks, which critics call "Super polluters," that the EPA would at least temporarily no longer enforce a 300-unit per company limit, allowing more of the trucks to be produced.
The EPA would do further study of the issue before deciding whether to continue a process started by Pruitt in November to permanently repeal restrictions on glider trucks.
In a memo to his deputies, first obtained by the New York Times, Wheeler said the EPA can only suspend enforcement of an agency rule in rare circumstances after consulting with EPA lawyers and policy experts.
The EPA in its own modeling has projected that so-called glider trucks emit 20 to 40 times as much of the pollutants nitrogen oxide and soot as trucks with new engines.
Pruitt's move to help Fitzgerald came after a university produced a study showing that pollution from glider trucks was the same as trucks with modern emissions controls, then reversed itself and asked the EPA to disregard the study.
Philip B. Oldham, the president of Tennessee Technological University, warned the EPA in April that "Experts within the university have questioned the methodology and accuracy" of the study, which was funded by Fitzgerald, the manufacturer of glider trucks.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/energy/new-epa-head-andrew-wheeler-reverses-scott-pruitts-parting-gift-to-polluting-trucks
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