For the first time in two decades, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has finalized tougher standards on pollution from heavy-duty trucks and other vehicles.

The new standards require an 80% cut in emissions of lung-damaging nitrogen oxides by model year 2027. The toughened rules are intended to protect communities most affected by their proximity to highways, ports, and distribution centers. These are most likely to be the lower-income, predominantly Black and Latino communities which suffer from elevated rates of asthma, heart disease, and premature death. Public health advocates project real health gains from the tightened standards, which for the first time apply to emissions from idling vehicles.

“This is a very aggressive action to protect the health of 72 million Americans and people living in these truck freight routes,” Michael Regan, the EPA administrator, said in an interview with The Washington Post. Regan said this rule is the first part of a three-step plan to cut pollution and planet-warming emissions from trucks and buses. He indicated that the administration plans to release a separate set of greenhouse gas rules for heavy-duty vehicles this coming spring. 

“Heavy-duty vehicles, such as delivery vans, garbage trucks, and 18-wheelers, are prolific polluters; accounting for 10% of on-road vehicles, they are responsible for nearly 30% of transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions, 45% of on-road nitrogen oxides and 57% of particulate matter emissions. This truck tailpipe pollution contributes to asthma, bronchitis, cardiovascular diseases, and premature death,” explains a blog post by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). 

NRDC and other climate-action advocates are calling for these follow-up efforts to move rapidly. “After two decades of inaction, EPA is finally moving to cut harmful truck tailpipe pollution. But these standards fall short, and the agency missed a critical opportunity to slash soot and smog and accelerate the shift to the cleanest vehicles,” said NRDC federal clean vehicles advocate Britt Carmon. “EPA now needs to move quickly to put in place the next round of standards that will accelerate the transition to zero-emitting trucks so that we can all be free from the tailpipe pollution that is harming our health and accelerating climate change.” The League of Conservation Voters (LCV) agrees, and further targets the need for action to cut health-threatening particulates (soot) pollution. LCV president Gene Karpinski noted, “Also without further delay, EPA must propose a strong limit for soot pollution, also known as particulate matter, in order to further protect our health and advance environmental justice.”