EDF, Allies Head to Court to Defend EPA’s Clean Truck Standards

(Washington, D.C. – May 20, 2024) Ten of the nation’s leading health and environmental groups, including Environmental Defense Fund, plan to go to court to defend EPA’s pollution standards for new heavy-duty vehicles like freight trucks and buses.

A group of Republican Attorneys General and Arizona state legislators together with the Arizona Trucking Association filed lawsuits against the protective standards in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit last week. Today, the health and environmental groups filed a motion to intervene in those cases.

“EPA’s Clean Truck Standards are critically important for protecting public health and our climate,” said Alice Henderson, EDF’s Director and Lead Counsel for Transportation and Clean Air. “They are also attainable, cost-effective, and legally sound. We look forward to providing a robust defense against the legal challenges to these important safeguards.”

Along with EDF, the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments, American Lung Association, American Public Health Association, Appalachian Mountain Club, Clean Air Council (represented by Clean Air Task Force), Environmental Law & Policy Center, Natural Resources Defense Council, Public Citizen, and Sierra Club joined today’s motion to intervene.

EPA’s Clean Truck Standards will slash climate pollution from new heavy-duty vehicles including freight trucks, garbage trucks, and school buses in model years 2027 through 2032. They’ll cut one billion metric tons of climate pollution by 2055, save fleets $3.5 billion in average annual savings, and provide substantial health benefits, especially to frontline communities.

EPA’s standards are performance based and technology neutral – so manufacturers can use a variety of technologies to comply, including internal combustion engine vehicle emission controls, and electrification technologies.

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. 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. ACT 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.