A three-judge panel Friday granted the Truck Trailer Manufacturer’s Association request to provisionally stay the trailer provisions of the greenhouse gas/fuel economy standards that were slated to go into effect in January.
Late last year, TTMA asked the court to review the trailer provisions of the Phase 2 Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Fuel Efficiency Standards, written by the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
In August, the EPA announced it would revisit the trailer provisions (as well as new rules regarding glider kits), following concerns raised by stakeholders in those industries.
In September, TTMA petitioned the court, this time for a stay of the rules while the litigation ran is course and the agencies decided what to do. The EPA responded that it not have any problems with such a stay, but said that didn’t mean it agreed with the TTMA’s arguments.
Among the trailer makers’ arguments is that the Clean Air Act only allows the government to regulate motor vehicles, and that trailers are not self-propelled and therefore not a motor vehicle subject to EPA rules. The court filing also says trailer makers will suffer “irreparable harm” without a stay. And, TTMA argues, a stay will not cause public hard, because even if implemented, the rules will have little positive effect on climate change. The types of fleet operations that would benefit from these technologies are already using them, TTMA claims, and the rules would fore trailer makers to put fuel-saving aerodynamic equipment on trailers that would not benefit.
TTMA President Jeff Sims told HDT, “We are pleased with the court’s decision and looking forward to EPA’s final decision.”
The Environmental Defense Fund criticized the efforts to derail the trailer provisions of the rule and said a stay will “delay these critical health and environmental protections for the duration of the litigation, which could last for years.”
“In a highly unusual action that emerged publicly at the 11th hour, EPA declined to defend the standards against TTMA’s stay motion,” it said in a news release.
But Jeffrey Wood, acting assistant attorney general, noted that EPA’s plan to revisit the trailer provisions through a notice-and-comment rulemaking could extend into next year – after the rule was supposed to go into effect.
EDF and numerous allies filed court documents opposing TTMA’s request, as did the California Air Resources Board and seven states – Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington.
EDF Attorney Alice Henderson pointed out that this stay has no impact on another provision of the Phase 2 GHG standards that is under review by the EPA, affecting glider kits. “The glider industry never brought a challenge to the glider provisions and in fact, though the rule was published in October 2016, did not even ask the agency to reconsider the glider provisions until July of this year.”
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