U.S. Legislative News

NAFA Voices Support for Increase in DERA Program Funding

Earlier this month, the House and Senate appointed conferees for the fiscal year (FY) 2019 Interior and Environmental Agencies (I&E) Appropriations bills. These conferees will work to resolve differences between the House and Senate funding totals for I&E programs, including the Diesel Emissions Reduction Act (DERA) program. Established under the Energy Policy Act of 2005, the DERA Grant Program authorizes funding of up to $100 million annually to help fleet owners reduce diesel emissions. The House I&E bill provides $100 million for the DERA program while the Senate I&E bill provides $50 million. In partnership with the DERA Coalition, of which NAFA is a member, NAFA signed onto a letter urging the conferees to support the House level of $100 million, a $75 million increase over current levels.

The DERA program provides grants and rebates to incentivize equipment and vehicle owners to install retrofit technologies on existing heavy-duty diesel vehicles and engines, or replace engines and equipment, reducing emissions by as much as 90 percent. In its letter, the Coalition highlights the program’s success: “EPA’s most recent estimates were completed in 2016 and reflect only the first five years of the program. Even with this limited sampling, the positive results were impressive. EPA estimated that just from 2009 to 2013, the program upgraded nearly 73,000 vehicles or pieces of equipment, and saved over 450 million gallons of fuel. In that report, EPA estimated that total lifetime emission reductions achieved through DERA funding are 14,700 tons of particulate matter and 335,200 tons of oxides of nitrogen.”

“The DERA program is still needed to help speed adoption of highly cost-effective emission control technologies for vehicles in the legacy fleet of millions of diesel vehicles which do not meet the most recent emission control standards. It is our hope that for FY 2019, Congress will provide additional funding in line with the most recent authorization target level and the House-passed level of $100 million,” the letter concludes.

 

EPA Inspector General to Audit Agency’s Glider Truck Study

In response to requests from four Congressmen, the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on September 4 its plans to conduct an audit of a 2017 EPA study that concluded glider trucks pollute more than trucks that meet newer federal emissions standards.

Glider trucks are a combination of new truck bodies with older engines. While often used to rebuild vehicles after accidents, they can also be used to avoid emissions regulations. The EPA says glider trucks emit up to 450 times more diesel particulate matter and up to 40 times more smog-forming nitrogen oxides than new trucks on the market.

“As part of this audit, the OIG will examine the selection, acquisition, and testing of glider vehicles at the EPA’s National Vehicle and Fuel Emissions Laboratory, as well as the EPA’s planning for this testing,” OIG said in its announcement. “If we were looking into allegations of misconduct, it would be an investigation, not an audit,” OIG spokeswoman Jennifer Kaplan said. “I can tell you if in the course of our audit we see anything that looks like it could be misconduct, we would refer it to our investigation division, but we would not make a public announcement.”

The EPA study in question was made public shortly after former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt proposed repealing an Obama-era rule to limit the production of glider trucks by each company to 300 a year. The EPA is still weighing whether to keep or repeal the rule. In recent months, lawmakers sent letters to the OIG alleging that employees of the EPA and Volvo representatives worked together to conduct the emissions test on glider vehicles assembled by Fitzgerald Glider Kits. Volvo allegedly purchased the gliders for the EPA to perform the tests without reaching out to Fitzgerald.

“Like most of the trucking industry, the Volvo Group for several years now has argued that the improper use of glider kits is bad for the environment and unfair to manufacturers who have invested in the latest environmental controls,” said John Miles, Corporate Communication Officer for Volvo Group North America. “All our communication and cooperation with the EPA on this issue has been an entirely appropriate part of a broad trucking industry advocacy effort. We did nothing improper.”

 

Lawmaker Says Action Needed to Avoid Slowing Autonomous Technology Progress

On September 5, the Highways and Transit Subcommittee held a hearing to examine technology innovations in surface transportation. As part of this hearing, transportation authorizer Rep. Brenda Lawrence (D-Mich.) warned that Congressional inaction could impede progress for states and firms testing autonomous vehicle systems.

“All the technology is ready. And every state is trying to implement their own plan, and then we are actually hindering the real success of innovation if we don’t have a national plan,” Rep. Lawrence said during the hearing. “It is, for me, a giant failure if we are going to be behind the eight-ball.”

Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.) responded by saying that adopting innovative technologies appropriately “will help our surface transportation system move people and goods more safely and efficiently.” Rep. Graves* also stressed the need for Congress to keep providing states with the “flexibility to implement innovative solutions and to deploy transportation technologies that work best for them.” Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Rep. Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) agreed and emphasized that a national framework also had the potential of improving highway safety.

Last year, the House advanced legislation aimed at facilitating the development of autonomous vehicles. In the Senate, similar legislation advanced by the Senate Commerce Committee has yet to reach the floor for full consideration, much to the frustration of House Republicans.

*Rep. Graves was interviewed for the latest issue of NAFA's FLEETSolutions magazine where he discussed the vehicle miles traveled platform as a viable revenue solution for the Highway Transit Fund.