EPA Clean Truck Standards Are the Next Step to a Clean Transportation Future

(Washington, D.C. – March 29, 2024) The Environmental Protection Agency today finalized standards that will slash climate and smog-forming pollution from new heavy-duty vehicles like freight trucks, garbage trucks, and school buses in model years 2027 through 2032.

“Today the Environmental Protection Agency took another key step in our journey toward a future with less traffic pollution – a future that will deliver cleaner air for our children, healthier communities, and a safer climate,” said Amanda Leland, Executive Director of Environmental Defense Fund.

EPA’s clean truck standards will cut one billion metric tons of climate pollution by 2055. They’ll also reduce smog-forming nitrogen oxides by 53,000 tons in 2055. And they’ll save our country money – $3.5 billion in average annual savings for fleets, $300 million in average annual health benefits and $13 billion in total annual societal benefits.

Like the clean car standards announced last week, EPA’s clean truck standards are performance based and technology neutral – so manufacturers will not be required to make any particular type of trucks. EDF analysis found that manufacturers could comply with the proposed standards without selling any additional zero-emission vehicles. However, sales and investments in electric heavy-duty trucks and buses are already growing fast and are expected to remain popular because they are cost-effective for manufacturers, fleets, and drivers.  

EDF analysis finds almost 13,000 electric heavy-duty trucks on the road today – about 10,000 of which were put on the road just last year, in 2023. Other research projects that more than 30% of all new heavy-duty trucks sold in the U.S. and Canada will be electric by early next decade.

Almost $14 billion in specific private investment in heavy-duty electric vehicle manufacturing, and an associated 24,000 jobs, have already been announced in the U.S.

EPA’s clean truck standards are the latest in a long line of actions the Biden administration has taken to address our traffic pollution – including last week’s clean car standards, limits on smog-forming pollution from big trucks, support for state leadership in addressing pollution from new cars and trucks, and billions in funding for cleaner ports, clean school buses, and tax credits to help people and fleets buy the clean vehicles they want.

“It all adds up to significant progress in addressing the climate crisis and giving our children a brighter, safer, healthier future,” said Leland. “That is critically important to me, as a mom. I am grateful to everyone who has helped move us this far in the right direction, and I look forward to working together as we continue toward our destination – a pollution-free future for all.”