More than 150 Republican lawmakers are calling on the Biden administration to rescind a rule that’s expected to make more of the nation’s truck fleet electric.
In a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the House and Senate Republicans wrote that the rule will “disrupt the heavy-duty truck industry by forcing the broad adoption of heavy-duty zero emission vehicles on an extremely aggressive timeline.”
The rule in question, issued by the EPA in April, would be expected to make new sales of the nation’s heaviest trucks more than 20 percent electric around 2040.
The truck rules do not explicitly mandate a shift toward electric vehicles (EVs). Instead, they set average pollution limits for truckmakers, which are expected to push them toward electric and other lower-emitting technologies such as hybrids.
It’s not totally clear how they will comply. However, one scenario modeled by the EPA projects that in the year 2032, new sales of lighter heavy-duty trucks could be 60 percent electric, medium heavy-duty trucks could be 40 percent electric and heavy heavy-duty trucks could be 30 percent electric.