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Truck pollution
IS LINKED TO OVER 3,700 HEART ATTACKS EACH YEAR
Background
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to strengthen pollution limits on greenhouse gas emissions from heavy duty vehicles, including delivery trucks, refuse haulers, public utility trucks, transit buses, shuttle buses, school buses, and tractors. The agency’s proposal builds on current greenhouse gas emissions limits for heavy-duty vehicles, making the standards more stringent for new heavy-duty vehicles starting in Model Year 2027. The limits would get tighter every year through Model Year 2032.
The EPA’s current proposal is a good start, but federal and manufacturer investments and state policies like the Advanced Clean Trucks rule all support the EPA enacting more stringent pollution limits than what is in its current proposal. The vehicle emissions safeguards must require tighter limits on diesel vehicles generally so that diesel trucks become increasingly cleaner as manufacturers transition to zero pollution vehicles. Health professionals must ask the EPA to enact the strongest possible safeguards to clean up deadly truck pollution, improve public health, and limit catastrophic climate change. The EPA is accepting comments until June 16.
What can you ask for?
Ask the EPA to finalize the strongest possible pollution safeguards on emissions from heavy-duty vehicles.
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To meet U.S. commitments and the Biden Administration’s critically important climate goals, transportation climate pollution must be cut by 29% - 40% by 2030.
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While trucks and buses account for only 4 percent of vehicles on the road, they are responsible for more than 25 percent of total transportation sector greenhouse gas emissions.
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Emissions from trucks are the fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions, and the number of truck miles traveled on the nation’s roads is forecast to continue to grow significantly in the coming decades.
Ask the EPA to move quickly and finalize these new safeguards by the end of the year!
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The American Lung Association estimates that if fleets move towards zero-emission trucks by 2050, we could see cumulative benefits that include: $735 billion in public health benefits due to cleaner air, 66,800 fewer premature deaths, 1.75 million fewer asthma attacks, and 8.5 million fewer lost workdays.
Ask the EPA to set the strongest possible heavy-duty vehicle pollution safeguards to protect communities of color.
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Asian-American, Black, and Latinx communities are being disproportionately burdened with air pollution from vehicles. Respectively, they face 34%, 24%, and 23% higher exposures when compared with their white counterparts.
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Forty-five percent of residents in counties with high truck traffic are people of color, compared to 38.4% of the total U.S. population. Strong standards would deliver massive emission reductions and life-saving relief to frontline communities.
Take Action
The EPA's process for submitting public comments can be difficult to navigate, so we created a tool that is completely editable for you to make your voice heard! We encourage you to add your story or make edits to the message body because personal comments are the most impactful. If you do not see a prompt to compose your message below, you may need to disable pop-up blockers on your browser to take action.
FAQ
What types of pollution do heavy duty trucks emit?
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Diesel-fueled trucks are a leading source of lung-damaging air pollutants, including smog-forming nitrogen oxides, ground level ozone, and particulate matter. In addition, all vehicles emit particulate matter from tire wear and the use of their brakes, but this is a particularly serious issue with heavy-duty trucks.
What are the health effects of exposure to pollution from heavy duty vehicle emissions?
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According to a Clean Air Task Force analysis of EPA data, every year diesel emissions from vehicles are projected to cause up to:
• 8,822 premature deaths
• 3,728 heart attacks
• 173,067 cases of respiratory symptoms
• 2,063 asthma-induced visits to the ER
• $98 billion public health costs to the economy
• 516,704 lost work days
How is climate change related to pollution from heavy duty vehicles?
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Transportation is one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. Transportation accounted for the largest portion (27%) of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in 2020. Cleaning up emissions from heavy duty vehicles plays a critical role in limiting catastrophic climate change.
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Greenhouse gas emissions contribute to climate change, which poses threats to Americans’ health and well-being, affecting everything from the air we breathe to the places we live. Extreme weather events caused by climate change create more air and water pollution, destabilize food sources, and put our homes and lives at risk.
Will enacting strong pollution limits on heavy duty vehicle emissions hurt the economy, auto workers, or manufacturers?
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The market is already moving quickly toward zero-emission trucks. Truck manufacturers have committed to make their trucks cleaner over the next decade. We need the EPA standards to match that momentum and provide the market signal to support those commitments.
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Major companies like Amazon, DHL, FedEx and Walmart have committed to electrifying their entire fleets.
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Major medium- and heavy duty vehicle manufacturers, including Daimler, Ford, Navistar, and Volvo, have committed to increasing their share of zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) sales, eventually achieving 100% of all new vehicles sold.
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As of September 2022, automakers and battery manufacturers worldwide will spend more than $626 billion through 2030 to develop new zero-emission cars, passenger trucks, freight trucks and buses. That is a $110 billion increase from projections in April of 2022. These investments are estimated to lead to more than 18,000 direct U.S. jobs related to the medium- and heavy-duty sector.
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Accelerated deployment of zero-emission trucks within the heavy-duty sector will:
• Create market certainty for the at least 70 electric truck and bus models that are currently available and for the number of manufacturers that have committed to making several new models commercially available over the next decade.
• Create jobs, including careers in industries that will support zero vehicle emissions deployment such as charging infrastructure and utilities.
I have additional questions; who can I talk to?
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Send an email to WHPCAcomms@gmail.com and we would be happy to help!