The trucking industry is sounding the alarm on the Biden administration’s new emission rules, warning that there will be a consequential ripple effect.
Many have spoken out about dangerous of the EPA’s recent emissions regulations, and now Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA), a trade organization that represents small business truckers, is speaking out about how the restrictions threaten small businesses all over the country.
Some smaller trucking companies have already said the new EPA standards could drive them out of the business.
“It’s been our history with experience with EPA that the regulations that they come up with tend to be… not all that practical when it comes to how they actually will work on the road,” OOIDA President Todd Spencer told Fox News.
“It’s one thing if you’re talking about doing this on an automobile, that if you don’t get where you’re needing to go quite as quickly as you could, it’s no big deal. There’s no ramifications generally beyond you,” he continued. “But for truckers, it can mean that they don’t make deliveries, that the goods that they’re transporting don’t get where they’re needed to go, and certainly in many instances, people really need to have the stuff that trucks bring on a timely basis.”
On Wednesday, the Biden White House announced aggressive regulations for tailpipe emissions as part of its sweeping climate agenda and efforts to push Americans to buy electric vehicles (EVs).
The tailpipe emissions regulations will impact light-duty and heavy-duty vehicles alike. The new standards for heavy-duty trucks, specifically, aim to reduce carbon emissions for trucks beginning with model year 2027.
According to the EPA, transportation accounts for 27% of the total greenhouse gas emission with heavy-duty vehicles making up 25% of that. By enforcing more stringent restrictions on the trucks, the EPA estimates the U.S. would avoid approximately 1.8 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions.
Spencer said, historically, new restrictions from the EPA “significantly increase costs” for equipment and operations. What’s more, they can “undermine reliability” which could be detrimental to the overall supply chain.
“For a small business, any kind of problem that comes along that can shut you down, that can disable you for anywhere from a few days to maybe even a few weeks, it can put you out of business really, really, really quickly,” Spencer said. “We certainly see the potential for these new proposed rules to have the exact same or maybe even a far worse impact on the operations of small business truckers.”
Spencer added that trucks and truckers are often transporting emergency goodsand supplies. He fears that unforeseen ramifications from the new restrictions could prevent drivers from getting those supplies to Americans facing emergency situations such as hurricanes and tornadoes.
He argued, “If your battery goes down in the middle of a windstorm, a snowstorm, a flood, a hurricane, there are no simple solutions and there may not be any remedies available. So we have to make certain things like that don’t can’t happen. If they [do], our total transportation system can shut down when it’s most urgently needed.”
“It absolutely can be life and death,” Spencer warned.
