Watchdog faults rushed EPA rulemaking on glider trucks
Source: Associated Press
Ellen Knickmeyer, Associated Press
Updated 5:13 pm CST, Thursday, December 5, 2019
WASHINGTON (AP) The Trump administration rushed to exempt a type of super-polluting cargo truck from clean air rules without conducting a federally mandated study on how it would impact public health, the Environmental Protection Agencys inspector-general said Thursday.
Agency officials at the time of the effort, done under former EPA chief Scott Pruitt, told the watchdog offices investigators of fast and loose rulemaking and a wild West atmosphere, the report from acting EPA Inspector General Charles J. Sheehan said.
Such actions call into question the quality of EPA rulemaking processes and leave the public and stakeholders without the information necessary to make informed comments on EPA regulatory actions," the inspector general's report warned.
The loophole that Pruitt was seeking would have eased pending restrictions on so-called glider trucks a booming sector of truck-making that refits older, dirtier truck engines with new truck bodies. Emission tests found the glider trucks themselves far more damaging to peoples health than trucks with newer engines, emitting up to several hundred times the amount of some pollutants.
Read more: https://www.chron.com/news/us/article/Watchdog-faults-rushed-EPA-rulemaking-on-glider-14885611.php
(My bolding.)