EPA seeks new pollution rules for big trucks; environmentalists wary

DETROIT — The Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to rewrite rules that limit pollution from heavy trucks but that the EPA says slow the economy.

Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler argues that new technology can help improve air quality, noting that the regulation of harmful nitrogen oxide emissions hasn’t been revamped since 2000.

EPA officials were to announce the plans Tuesday but offered few details and said they were just beginning a regulatory process that can take years.

“We are doing it because it’s good for the environment,” said Wheeler, who notes that the EPA is under no requirement to redo the regulation. “Our goal is to update our standards so that we can get these new technologies in use across the country.”

The proposed “Cleaner Trucks Initiative” is drawing expressions of hope but skepticism from some environmental groups, especially because the EPA under President Donald Trump already has proposed relaxing emissions requirements for light passenger cars and trucks by freezing them at 2020 levels.

Andrew Linhardt, the Sierra Club’s deputy director for clean transportation, said his group is wary, and it wants to see details. Linhardt said he would favor the adoption of rules that would reduce nitrogen oxide emissions but doubts the administration wants to do that.

Nitrogen oxides can worsen existing lung disease, contribute to the development of asthma and increase susceptibility to respiratory infections.