{"id":18313,"date":"2017-12-08T16:39:39","date_gmt":"2017-12-08T21:39:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/?p=18313"},"modified":"2017-12-08T16:39:39","modified_gmt":"2017-12-08T21:39:39","slug":"public-speaks-out-against-pruitts-effort-to-reopen-a-loophole-for-super-polluting-glider-trucks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2017\/12\/08\/public-speaks-out-against-pruitts-effort-to-reopen-a-loophole-for-super-polluting-glider-trucks\/","title":{"rendered":"Public speaks out against Pruitt\u2019s effort to reopen a loophole for super-polluting glider trucks"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Public health experts, freight truck manufacturers and truck dealers sent a shared message to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt at a recent public hearing<\/a> \u2013 don\u2019t reopen a loophole for super-polluting glider trucks.<\/p>\n

Glider trucks are new freight trucks that have used engines installed in them. Those older engines emit harmful soot and smog-causing pollutants at rates dramatically higher than trucks that comply with current emission standards.<\/p>\n

Glider trucks, with their older engines, emit high levels of pollutants like cancer-causing diesel particulate, as well as oxides of nitrogen and particulate matter \u2013 which have been linked to severe human health impacts, including increased asthma attacks and exacerbation of heart disease.<\/p>\n

Pruitt has proposed reopening a loophole in our national Clean Truck Standards<\/a> that would allow glider trucks to pollute without restriction. This proposed rollback of common sense pollution limits is a slap in the face \u2013 not only to American families, who deserve clean air to breathe, but also to the heavy duty trucking industry, which has invested in cleaner technologies for years.<\/p>\n

Freight truck leaders voice concerns about glider truck loophole<\/strong><\/p>\n

Volvo senior vice president Susan Alt testified at the public hearing that Pruitt\u2019s proposal \u201cmakes a mockery\u201d of their responsible investments in pollution control equipment and clean technologies.<\/p>\n

Representatives from the American Trucking Associations, the Engine Manufacturers Association, and the Heavy Duty Fuel Efficiency Leadership Group echoed concerns that the proposed rollback would undermine their investment decisions for the past decade, upend the level playing field the industry needs for the well-being of their businesses, and jeopardize the regulatory certainty upon which they rely.<\/p>\n

Freight truck dealers underscored that they hire and employ skilled technicians \u2014 in communities all across the country \u2014 to service and maintain modern, cleaner engines. Their businesses, and their employees, will be at risk if the loophole for glider trucks is reopened.<\/p>\n

Pruitt issued his proposal based on flawed, incomplete information<\/strong><\/p>\n

EPA estimated in 2016 that glider truck emissions were as much as 40 times higher<\/strong> <\/em>than modern engines.<\/p>\n

The agency recently undertook more emission testing to refine its data. But Pruitt issued his proposal to repeal the glider provisions before<\/em><\/strong> EPA\u2019s testing could be completed.<\/p>\n

Instead, Pruitt\u2019s proposal highlights poorly supported assertions from Tennessee Tech University, which conducted testing on glider trucks that found much lower emissions of oxides of nitrogen and particulate matter than EPA\u2019s estimates.<\/p>\n

Last week, EPA released its new, updated testing data<\/a>, as well as a memo with further details about the Tennessee Tech findings<\/a> that show flaws in the university\u2019s analysis. This new information confirms the serious threat to human health posed by glider trucks.<\/p>\n

EPA\u2019s new test data<\/a> suggests that the estimates it relied on before closing the glider truck in the first place may have been too conservative:<\/p>\n

Under highway cruise conditions, [oxides of nitrogen] emissions from the glider vehicles were approximately 43 times as high<\/strong>, and [particulate matter] emissions were approximately 55 times as high<\/strong> as the conventionally manufactured tractors. (emphasis added<\/em>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

EPA identified a number of deeply troubling flaws and biases in Tennessee Tech\u2019s methodology, facilities, and equipment used to generate their data. Most notably, Tennessee Tech\u2019s assertions that the tested glider trucks met EPA\u2019s 2010 emission standard for particulate matter and performed equally as well as modern trucks were not based on any actual measurement of the pollutant \u2013 just visible inspection, a practice abandoned decades ago as wholly inadequate for measuring particulate matter from diesel engines.<\/p>\n

Equally alarming, as the Washington Post has reported<\/a>, the EPA memo acknowledges that Tennessee Tech has a financial relationship with a major glider manufacturer \u2013 Fitzgerald Glider Kits \u2013 that is pushing for EPA to roll back the pollution protections for its product. The testing facility used by Tennessee Tech is owned by Fitzgerald.<\/p>\n

Pruitt puts clean air at risk<\/strong><\/p>\n

These documents reinforce what has been clear since Pruitt took office \u2013 the Administrator is ignoring his agency\u2019s own science and expertise, and putting the health of American families at risk, with an onslaught of attacks against vital pollution protections \u2013 attacks that are endorsed by politically connected major polluters.<\/p>\n

Diverse voices turned out in full force at the public hearing to rebuke the most recent example of this pattern of practice:<\/p>\n