Strange Friends of the New EPA Trucking Regulations

[Geee]

American Thinker:

Recent headlines would have you believe the trucking industry and environmentalists are all singing kumbaya in praise of President Obama's new regulations to lower greenhouse gas emissions and increase fuel efficiency in medium-and heavy-duty trucks. If you were wondering what's driving the cozy relationship between the Trucking Industry and the EPA, you are not alone.

When industry officials emerged from the White House Tuesday last week eerily happy to embrace the new Transportation Department and EPA standards that promise to rock their industry Megan McArdle at The Atlantic opined that either something is missing in this story, or American manufacturing is in even worse shape than she suspected.

Tim Linden writes, "It is a rare government regulation that receives universal high marks, but such is seemingly the case with the new truck fuel efficiency standard." Fred Krupp, president of the Environmental Defense Fund stated, "It's great to see Washington get something so right. Thanks to these new standards, everybody wins: Truck drivers save money at the pump, America imports less foreign oil and we all get to breathe cleaner air."

There is more to the story; this legislation promises to put the EPA in charge of yet another fundamental sector of our economy -- transportation of goods. EPA is in control of the stick and the carrot in this scenario, with both regulation and EPA's administration of a special SmartWay grant program that benefits the shipping industry.

These regulations are the first of their type within the trucking industry and will require manufacturers to cut fuel consumption and emissions for model years 2014 through 2018. Fuel costs are one of the highest operating costs in the trucking industry and play an integral part of the market. Commercial vehicles, by necessity, have different requirements because they are used in many different applications with different payloads making a uniform standard impossible if not counter-productive. Those big rigs need big power to pull the load they carry. A fully loaded trailer might average 5 to 7 mpg but also weights 25 to 30 times as much as a passenger vehicle.

American Trucking Association (ATA) President and CEO Bill Graves touted the move as, "Welcome news to us in the trucking industry." He would make Wesley Mooch proud. The whole scene reminds me of AARP pushing the Healthcare bill. The ATA is comprised predominately of the largest shippers and receivers and only the very largest trucking companies. It is not made up of the owner-operators, as many mistakenly believe. Nick Loris at the Heritage Foundation said these plans will result in higher costs and are not what the industry needs right now.