EPA, NHTSA Can Regulate Trailer Emissions, Agencies’ Attorneys Say
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The Department of Justice has filed a legal document with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia supporting federal regulators’ authority to enforce an Obama-era greenhouse gas emissions rule to include first-ever federal regulation of greenhouse gases and fuel efficiency for trailers.
The DOJ legal brief, filed on behalf of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, marked the first time the Trump administration has made clear its response to a federal civil action filed more than three years ago by the Truck Trailer Manufacturers Association, asking an appeals court to block the trailer provision in the joint 2016 Phase 2 greenhouse gas emissions rule for medium and heavy trucks.
The rule for the first time imposed “emissions” and “fuel economy” standards on trailers, which TTMA said emit nothing and consume no fuel. The trailer provision was set to take effect Jan. 1, 2021, but has been stayed by the appeals court.
“Substantial evidence supports the conclusion that the design and performance of these attached trailers have a significant effect on fuel consumption of tractor-trailers,” the DOJ brief said.
TTMA President Jeff Sims said his association declines to comment but would make its case in a response brief to the appeals court due by June 2. Final briefs in the case are due by June 23.
In prior court arguments, TTMA has said trailers are highly customized and ordered months in advance, meaning the organization’s members will begin taking orders for 2021 in the coming months.
“TTMA’s members need to know whether the rule will apply to the trailers they sell for the 2021 model year, and they cannot realistically continue to wait for the agencies to engage in the rulemaking that has been promised since 2017,” the trailer association has said.
EPA and NHTSA had taken the position in court filings that trailer manufacturers were unfairly trying to speed up a laborious rule-making review process.
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But in the April 21 filing, DOJ attorneys justified the authority of both agencies to regulate trailers working in tandem.
“EPA, for example, manages all data collection regarding the fuel economy of passenger cars and light trucks, and it shares that data with NHTSA to assist in NHTSA’s efforts to ensure that manufacturers of these vehicles are complying with fuel-economy standards,” DOJ attorneys argued.
“The [trailer] association’s arguments against the challenged rule focus principally on the fact that trailers do not have engines, and thus do not consume fuel,” DOJ attorneys said. “The association believes that this fact prohibits NHTSA from regulating trailers entirely.”
But the DOJ brief noted that TTMA’s arguments do not establish that Congress precluded NHTSA’s ability to exercise discretion and interpret the term ‘vehicle,’ claiming those arguments merely confirm “the ambiguity in the statute.”
“Congress did not define the term ‘vehicle,’ nor did it address the question whether the agency could regulate trailers,” DOJ contended. “It thus left to NHTSA the discretion to fill the consequent statutory gap.”
Kedzie
Glen Kedzie, environmental affairs counsel for American Trucking Associations, said ATA was unsure what position the Trump administration would take on the trailer provisions under Phase 2.
“DOJ came out with their gloves on,” Kedzie said. “It was a very sound, well-justified brief that clearly set out EPA and DOT’s independent legal authorities to regulate trailers.”
He added, “We’re happy that the legal filing supports the position of our industry that was reflected in the original 2016 rule. At the end of the day, the agencies’ efforts will likely serve as further proof that the thoroughness, time, outreach and transparency involved in the development of a regulation will go a long way in fending off legal challenges.”
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