Apr 1, 2024
Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued its final rule for “Phase 3” heavy-duty vehicle tailpipe emissions standards. This rule comes a full 11-months after announcing the proposed rule last April. These standards apply to vehicles beginning with Model Year 2027. Transportation is the leading and fastest growing sector contributing to greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S, accounting for nearly 30% of our total emissions.
In response, GreenLatinos Sustainable Communities Program Director, Andrea Marpillero-Colomina, issued the following statement:
While EPA projects that this rule will lead to the removal of over a billion metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions from the atmosphere by 2055, we think it could go further. In particular, we are disappointed to see that the final rule includes delays in new standards for the largest vehicles, like diesel semi-trucks, which produce substantial pollution damage.
We joined other advocates in repeatedly calling for the strongest possible rule, and this unfortunately falls short of achieving that potential. The tenets of this rule make it clear that the Administration’s commitment to environmental justice is not as strong as its commitment to appeasing the truck lobby.
This rule could have been the realization of an unparalleled policy opportunity to mitigate impacts of environmental racism and reduce planet-warming, community harming emissions. Latino/e communities are more likely to live in ‘diesel death zones’ where truck emissions create greater risk of lung disease, asthma, and cancer. Latino/e children visit the ER due to asthma at twice the rate of non-Hispanic white children and are 40% more likely to die from asthma.
While the rule is a step in the right direction, we need more stringent regulations to fully protect our health and our planet.
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About GreenLatinos
GreenLatinos (NOTE: GreenLatinos is ONE WORD) is an active comunidad of Latino/a/e leaders, emboldened by the power and wisdom of our culture, united to demand equity and dismantle racism, resourced to win our environmental, conservation, and climate justice battles, and driven to secure our political, economic, cultural, and environmental liberation.