PRESS RELEASE
“Scott Pruitt made sure to give a parting gift to polluters on his very last day as EPA Administrator – bolstering the Trump Administration’s legacy of siding with corporations over people. Removing limits on the production of super-polluting ‘glider’ trucks is a blatantly illegal action that would result in massive increases in dangerous air pollution and tens of millions of dollars in damages to New Yorkers’ health alone,” said Attorney General Underwood. “Acting Administrator Wheeler should avoid following in the footsteps of his predecessor, and immediately withdraw or stay this reprehensible, destructive, and illegal action.”
The action taken on former Administrator Pruitt’s last day will allow the sale of trucks that produce 20 to 40 times more emissions of hazardous pollutants than new, more fuel efficient trucks. These high-polluting trucks are linked to asthma, low birth weight, infant mortality, and lung cancer. The EPA itself has estimated that adding 10,000 gliders with non-compliant engines onto our roads in a single year could result in up to 1,600 premature deaths, 415,000 tons of additional nitrogen oxide emissions, and 6,800 tons of additional particulate matter emissions.
In New York and across the country, the rest of the trucking industry has already made substantial investments to comply with stringent emissions standards; suspending the rule would also create an uneven playing field for trucking companies forced to compete against unregulated, high-polluting glider manufacturers who avoid such investments.
The letter was led by the California Attorney General and signed by the Attorneys General of Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Vermont, and Washington, as well as the California Air Resources Board and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection.
