Republican senators are looking to roll back EPA’s recently finalized emission standards for heavy-duty trucks, one of the latest attempts to overturn Biden administration rulemaking on environmental issues.
Sens. Deb Fischer of Nebraska and John Kennedy of Louisiana introduced a Congressional Review Act resolution Wednesday aimed at an EPA rule set to take effect in March that would cut harmful soot and smog pollution from trucks starting in model year 2027.
“The Biden Administration is saddling the trucking industry with an onerous regulation that would jack up vehicle costs and hurt good paying jobs,” said Fischer. “This aggressive EPA rule — which will hit mom-and-pop truck operations the hardest — is also ineffective because it incentivizes operators to keep using older, higher-emitting trucks for longer.”
The rule is expected to slash nitrogen oxide emissions from the heavy-duty vehicle sector by 48 percent by 2045. EPA predicts that those emission reductions could annually prevent up to 2,900 premature deaths and result in 1.1 million fewer lost school days for children (Greenwire, Dec. 20, 2022).
The CRA allows Congress to overturn recently finalized rules with a simple majority in the House and Senate. Thirty-two GOP senators co-sponsored Wednesday’s resolution.
Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chair Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), a key swing vote, is not among the co-sponsors. Manchin is supporting another CRA resolution against a Department of Labor rule on environmental, social and governance investing (E&E Daily, Feb. 3).
Even though CRA resolutions won’t succeed this Congress, with Biden sure to veto anything lawmakers may pass, they show the GOP’s commitment to going after certain administration initiatives.
Republicans have also introduced resolutions against EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers’ Clean Water Act rule and regulations to protect the lesser prairie chicken.
