ATA Warns Congress Against Allowing California to Set National Emissions Rules
American Trucking Associations President and CEO Chris Spear told Congress that the industry needed realistic national timelines and targets to reduce emissions, rather than allowing California and other states to drive standards. “The trucking industry starts with ‘yes,’" Spear testified before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee today. “ATA worked with the Environmental Protection Agency, producing Phases I and II emission reduction rules, as well as the SmartWay Transport Partnership – which has been a model of public-private cooperation. To date, 98.5% of all emissions have been removed from our tailpipes. In fact, 60 trucks today emit what one truck emitted in 1988.” Spear emphasized that those gains, which include reductions of millions of tons of carbon, nitrogen oxide and particulate matter emissions, were the result of collaborative regulatory processes and realistic goals.