Truck drivers slammed the Biden administration’s new regulations that crack down on heavy-duty vehicle emissions, calling electric vehicle trucks “useless.”
At the end of last month, the Environmental Protection Agency announced new rules targeting heavy-duty vehicles as part of President Joe Biden’s ambitious efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions. The regulations, which won’t begin until 2026, have left American truckers reeling, claiming that EV batteries are not a suitable substitution for the conditions that big rigs endure on the road.
“Even if they subsidized the cost of the electric vehicle 100%, I still would refuse because I still would go broke,” Mike Nichols, a truck driver from Wisconsin, told Fox News. “That’s how useless they are. If they gave me one of these things, I still wouldn’t take it.”
Electric vehicles can’t carry as much, travel as far, and take a long time to charge, Nichols maintained.
The new regulations will affect various kinds of vehicles, including delivery trucks, tractor-trailer trucks, garbage trucks, fire trucks, as well as public transit buses.
“So, you’re going to need more trucks on the road, which is completely the opposite of what we would want if we were actually concerned about bettering our society,” Nichols told the outlet.
By 2032, 30% of heavy-duty vocational trucks and 40% of short-haul trucks need to have zero emissions, according to the new EPA standards.
“The post-2030 targets remain entirely unachievable,” Chris Spear, the CEO of the American Trucking Association, told the Associated Press last week when the agency announced the new rules.
A diesel-powered semitruck can travel between 2,000 and 1,500 miles, depending on certain factors, while the highest-end electric semitruck has a 500-mile range, Fox News reported.
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“The rule will deliver substantial public health benefits, while at the same time ensuring fleet owners and operators the flexibility to choose the vehicle technologies best suited to their operations,” the EPA said in a statement to the outlet.
The new rules for heavy-duty trucks and passenger vehicles come as EV sales across the country have slowed down, with those in the auto industry concerned that the consumer demand isn’t keeping up with the production of EVs.
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