The U.S. Department of Transportation formally shelved a Biden-era greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions regulation, according to a final rule posted in the Federal Register.
The overturned a greenhouse gas emission (GHG) rule adopted in 2023, which hadn't formally started, would have required state transportation departments to measure and establish declining targets for carbon dioxide emissions on federally supported highways.
“I slashed this ridiculous climate requirement to ensure no radical political agenda gets in the way of revitalizing America’s highways,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. Friday's final rule was the first deregulatory action completed by Duffy's office.
The rescission of the GHG Measurement Rule is the latest in a series of actions designed to deliver on President Donald Trump's commitment to rescind policies deemed "harmful" enacted under the Biden-Harris Administration, and "reaffirm USDOT’s focus on safety, efficiency, economic prosperity, and regulatory reform," according to a statement from USDOT.
This repeal, according to the final rule, alleviates a burden on state DOTs and MPOs that, had it been implemented, "would have imposed costs with no predictable level of benefits and without clear legal authority."
This final rule does not prohibit State DOTs and MPOs from choosing voluntarily to measure and assess CO2.
“States are best equipped to determine their transportation needs, but FHWA’s GHG emissions performance measures issued by the Biden Administration would have created unnecessary bureaucratic barriers to access federal funds," said American Trucking Associations Senior Vice President of Regulatory Affairs and Safety Policy Dan Horvath. "Ultimately, this heavy-handed approach would have scrambled local priorities and undermined highway expansion projects, leading to greater traffic congestion and higher shipping costs that contribute to inflation."
OOIDA President Todd Spencer noted that FHWA can best improve highway safety "by focusing on priorities like expanding truck parking capacity and mitigating congestion rather than forcing states to calculate radical emissions performance measures.”
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is also reconsidering the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standards for Heavy-Duty Vehicles – Phase 3 (GHG3) final rule, and revisiting portions of the Biden-era "Clean Trucks Plan," which includes the 2022 Heavy-Duty Nitrous Oxide (NOx) rule.
