Press Release  AG Healey Sues EPA Over Illegal Suspension of Rules That Limit Dangerous Air Pollution From Dirty Heavy-Duty Trucks

Boston — Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey joined a coalition of 16 attorneys general, the California Air Resources Board, the Maryland Department of the Environment, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, in filing a lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over its illegal suspension of regulations that place strict emissions standards on highly polluting heavy-duty trucks, known as “glider” trucks.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday, challenges an order issued on former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt’s last day in office that illegally suspends the 2016 Glider Rule for a year. The Glider Rule mandates that most engines installed in “gliders” – new heavy-duty truck bodies outfitted with or rebuilt with pre-2010 dirty and inefficient engines – meet the same emissions standards applicable to all newly manufactured engines. The order suspends the annual requirement limiting glider manufacturers to 300 gliders per company, which is meant to protect the air from excessive smog-forming and particulate-matter pollution emitted from older truck engines.

“Scott Pruitt was far more interested in protecting special interest super-polluters than our environment, even up until his last day in office,” said AG Healey. “This order – Pruitt’s parting gift to polluters – is illegal, bad for our environment, and harmful to the health of our children. We are suing to stop this reckless action from going forward.”

AG Healey was one of 13 attorneys general who sent a letter to the EPA on July 13 demanding an immediate withdrawal of the decision suspending the Glider Rule. The coalition of attorneys general also filed an emergency motion Thursday asking the Court to overturn the EPA’s order or to block it from taking effect it until the Court can rule on the merits of the lawsuit.

Under the Clean Air Act, the EPA is required to set and enforce emissions standards for vehicles, including for heavy-duty trucks like gliders.

Gliders that do not comply with the Glider Rule produce 20 to 40 times more emissions of hazardous pollutants that are linked to asthma, low birth weight, infant mortality, and lung cancer. EPA has also estimated that, if it allows 10,000 additional gliders to be produced with non-compliant engines, the pollution from those vehicles would result in up to 1,600 premature deaths, 415,000 tons of additional nitrogen oxide emissions, and 6,800 tons of additional particulate matter emissions.

In Massachusetts and elsewhere, the rest of the trucking industry has already made substantial investments to comply with stringent emissions standards and would face an uneven playing field against unregulated glider manufacturers that avoid such investments.

The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection submitted a declaration in support of Thursday’s lawsuit that states that EPA’s order undermines the state’s efforts to reduce harmful pollutants and will burden the state with millions of dollars in health-related costs.

The lawsuit was filed by the Attorneys General of California, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and the District of Columbia, as well as the California Air Resources Board, the Maryland Department of the Environment, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

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