Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
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14 commercial carrier journal | january 2018 JOURNAL NEWS EPA takes comments on rule to protect gliders from emissions regulations T ruckers and other industry stake- holders last month could file formal comments on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's proposal to exempt glider kit vehicles from the Phase 2 trac- tor-trailer emissions standards enacted in 2016 by the Obama administration. EPA announced in November its plan to reclassify glider kits as non- new vehicles, thereby restricting the agency's ability to regulate their exhaust emissions, and to repeal the glider kit-specific provisions of the Phase 2 emissions regulations. The remainder of the Phase 2 stan- dards will remain intact. The sweep- ing regulations call for a roughly 25 percent reduction in emissions of greenhouse gases of tractor-trailers by 2027, with phased-in benchmarks set to help manufacturers work toward EPA's requirements. The glider kit regulations set by the Phase 2 rule were slated to take effect in January. EPA likely will move quickly after the Jan. 5 end of the comment period to finalize the revised rule and exempt glider kit manufacturers from compliance. The regulations only applied to new glider kit vehicles, not those already in operation. The initial Phase 2 standards offered a limited exemption for glider kit com- panies that build less than 300 kits a year. Manufacturers such as Fitzgerald's and some truck OEMs can build thou- sands of glider kits a year, meaning they would have had to alter their operations to meet the Phase 2 rule's standards. EPA initially claimed that 10,000 glider kits, which is roughly the amount sold each year, produced nearly the same amount of emissions of green- house gases and NOx as 200,000 mod- ern trucks and engines. Research from Tennessee Tech University refuted that claim, however, and EPA leaned on the new research in proposing to repeal the Phase 2 glider kit emissions regulations. – Matt Cole EPA's move would exempt glider kits from restrictions required by the Phase 2 tractor-trailer emissions standards.