Less than a week after President Donald J. Trump and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin revoked the Endangerment Finding and, with it, more than 15 years of greenhouse gas (GHG) regulations on medium- and heavy-duty trucking, the American Trucking Associations (ATA) sent a letter to Zeldin Wednesday seeking more regulatory assistance through the easing of upcoming 2027 Low NOx regulations.
In it, ATA President and CEO Chris Spear said the association appreciates the “commonsense approach to environmental regulation” Zeldin’s EPA has shown over the last year. “EPA’s commitment to engage industry stakeholders and reevaluate existing regulations will help to ensure environmental protections are appropriately balanced with the need to sustain economic growth and industry competitiveness,” Spear wrote.
He added, “We remain concerned that the heavy-duty NOx rule imposes significant burdens at a time when the trucking industry continues to contend with a prolonged freight recession and inflationary pressures. ATA requests that EPA consider improvements that would reduce cost and complexity and ensure that any new technology that trucking is forced to adopt is reliable.”
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Zeldin’s EPA has already announced its intent to revisit the NOx rule, finalized in 2022 as the “Control of Air Pollution from New Motor Vehicles: Heavy-Duty Engine and Vehicle Standards” rule, though it is unknown at this time what the extent of those changes could be.
As such, many North American engine makers have already released their 2027 compliant engines, and are currently working to scale up production to implement the engines when required. Representatives from multiple OEMs also expressed skepticism during the 2025 Used Truck Association Convention panel that a full removal of NOx regulations is a possibility.
Spear’s message Wednesday pushed for a delay, citing a lack of preparation time for carriers to become accustomed to the new technologies.
“New emission control technologies required on model year (MY) 2027 trucks are unproven on the highway, and the trucking industry is concerned that a premature rollout will disrupt our ability to efficiently move freight,” he wrote. “The lack of compliant prototype engines and preproduction models has stalled the technology trials that normally preceded major new emissions standards.”
Additionally, ATA recommended EPA grant non-conformance penalties to heavy-duty manufacturers to give them additional time to run real-world testing on these new emission control systems, and also recommended the EPA consider expanding credit life, credit trading and credit use across different vehicle classes. Spear wrote these credit market flexibilities would enable manufacturers to remain in compliance while supplying proven technologies to the new truck market.
To read the full letter, please CLICK HERE.
