At the end of last week, the EPA announced a new set of emission standards that will have to be followed by auto manufacturers when making heavy-duty trucks, buses, and any other large vehicle that commonly releases a high amount of carbon emissions. These new standards on emissions are being set forth with the hope of reducing the overall emissions we release in order to clean up the planet. We are already barreling into climate change, so many experts have acknowledged that these may not save the planet, but they will ideally stop it from getting worse.

These new rules will not go into action until the manufacturing of model years 2027 begins.

Currently, the standards are set to be required to be implemented for model years 2027 through 2032. According to the research done by the EPA, the new standards will allow us to avoid about one billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions. These tons would be avoided over the next three decades. Because of the reduction in emissions, they were then able to resolve that about $13 billion in net benefits will be saved as well that otherwise would have been spent on hospital visits, deaths, and other sociological things that would have stemmed from the emissions.

Furthermore, they believe around 72 million people around the United States alone that currently live around freight routes will experience far less issues due to the air pollution. They confidently have stated that the new standard set will allow for people to enjoy healthier lives that are not burdened so severely because of pollution. Obviously, pollution will not be entirely eradicated, however it will be massively reduced.

Just a week before these rules were released, the EPA set new standards for automobile tailpipe emissions.

Overall, the Environmental Protection Agency is cracking down heavily on greenhouse gas emissions on a national level. Previously, some states have set new standards to be applied in the future or simply stated goals, but we have not seen such an extreme measure done on national level like this before. Many are hopeful for what this will mean for our future, while others have expressed their deep concerns over whether or not it will be too late by the time these are in practice. Unfortunately, it is simply a waiting game as only time will tell.