The current administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, also known as the EPA, Lee Zeldin, announced that the agency will be rolling back on emission’s regulations put in place under the Biden administration. The announcement comes as the Trump administration has been focusing heavily on many rollbacks of regulations implemented by other administrations, especially Biden’s. The EPA’s emission’s regulation rollback is one of 31 actions being done by the EPA.

The affected regulation is the Clean Trucks Plan.

The plan was put in place under Biden and Harris as a means to reduce nitrous oxide emissions, specifically those released into our atmosphere by heavy-duty trucks. The deregulation happening in the agency is described by Zeldin as “the greatest and most consequential day of deregulation in U.S. history.” He says others refer to the emission’s regulation as an “electric vehicle mandate” arguing that the regulation forces people to drive electric trucks rather than ones run on fuel.

The current EPA argues the regulations would have cost $700 billion.

They argue that the regulations set out to reduce greenhouse gases in our atmosphere would have led to $700 billion in regulatory and compliance costs. They say these costs would have been seen and felt both by individual consumers and the industry as a whole.

Specifically, the regulation targeted trucks with model years starting in 2027. According to the EPA’s decision, qualifying trucks would have to have engines that met certain requirements beginning with model year 2027 vehicles. The engines would have to be designed specifically to reduce the emissions significantly, nearing zero emissions. The plans were commonly referred to as Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standards for Heavy-Duty Vehicles – Phase 3. Ultimately, the goal of the regulation was to encourage truck makers to use technologies and systems in the vehicles that focused on advanced internal combustion, hybrid, battery-electric, and/or fuel cell. All of these are actions that further would help reduce emissions.

Because of the regulations, many companies already began working to redesign their vehicles to follow them.

Several automakers have reworked their aftertreatment systems, electrical systems, and their engines. Furthermore, the industry as a whole has been working to be compliant, with even a new diesel engine oil category being created. Because of this, several automakers have already said they will release regulation compliant vehicles starting with 2027 models whether the regulations are still in place or not. Several have released statements that the regulations were eye opening, and they see how they can improve their vehicles and the world with them in mind. Many leaders in the industry are calling on the EPA to not entirely wipe away the regulations, but instead just rework them. The EPA has not announced a formal plan for their deregulation.