What the Truck?

Last week, the Healey Administration delayed a strict requirement that would have made the sale of many kinds of heavy-duty diesel trucks all but impossible in Massachusetts starting January 1, 2025. It's either the end of the world  (as the very progressive Conservation Law Foundation would have it) or the beginning of sanity, (according to the fiscal conservatives at the Mass Fiscal Alliance.)  
Parsing the over-the-top language used by each group seemed a task too daunting for a weekend, so we provide both, below, and offer them as a chance to practice identifying and deciphering manipulative language, half-truths, and appeals to emotion rather than logic.

EXHIBIT A

MassDEP Delays Rule to Curb Dirty Emissions from Trucks

Delay jeopardizes climate goals, clean air, and health 

October 18, 2024 (Boston, MA) – The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) delayed implementing a rule that will curb dirty tailpipe emissions from polluting trucks. The Heavy-Duty Omnibus (HDO) rule, now delayed a year until 2026, requires new combustion truck engines sold in Massachusetts to be significantly cleaner, but has faced opposition from engine manufacturers. “This is another disappointing failure of climate leadership and policy transparency by the Healey Administration, which has postponed a major climate and clean air rule and evaded public scrutiny by cynically declaring an ‘emergency’ based solely on closed-door meetings with local officials hearing unfounded claims from engine vendors,” said Conservation Law Foundation President Brad Campbell. “The actual emergency is the administration’s seeming indifference to public health and public process for Massachusetts residents breathing the dirtiest air.” Massachusetts adopted HDO in 2021 and it requires new engines to emit 75 percent less nitrogen oxide pollution and 50 percent less particulate matter pollution in its first phase, with increasing stringency over time. The rule was set to be implemented starting with model year 2025. Transportation is the largest source of climate-warming emissions in New England and the entire country, and this delay will jeopardize Massachusetts’ efforts to reach its climate goals. Vehicles spew pollution that warms our climate and dirties the air. Heavy-duty vehicles often rely on the dirtiest of fuels: among them is deadly diesel. Diesel has a long and sordid history of polluting our air and climate. This fuel is linked to asthma and other respiratory illnesses. It also aggravates preexisting conditions like heart and lung disease. Worse, the public health impacts of diesel disproportionately affect communities already overburdened by environmental hazards, such as communities of color or low socioeconomic status. “Arise for Social Justice is appalled at the decision to delay the heavy truck ruling,” said Rusty Polsgrove, Associate Director of Arise for Social Justice. “Each day we delay the transition to clean technology is a day that Black, Brown, and low-income communities suffer an inequitable public health burden. It is imperative that the Commonwealth prioritize the health of its residents over the profit of its corporations.”

EXHIBIT B

Unwise Law Collides with Reality as Healey Administration Forced to Delay Diesel Truck Ban

BOSTON – The Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance made the following comment today, after the MassDEP announced late today that it would delay the potentially devastating prohibition on sales of some diesel heavy duty vehicles in Massachusetts, set to go into effect on January 1, 2025.

“The Executive branch adopted these arbitrary rules with unrealistic prohibitions despite the objections of so many people, business, and organizations who told them how harmful they would be. As reality begins to set in, it should come as no surprise that they were forced to reverse course from disaster. The thought that on December 31 of this year a business could buy a new, heavy duty diesel vehicle, but on January 1 of the next year a whole new set of prohibitive rules would take effect that would effectively take away that option, is foolish at best. The Healey administration’s bureaucratic regulators need to drop these restrictions that will put Massachusetts businesses and residents at a disadvantage and stay on pace with federal EPA standards. More importantly, they should be letting the free market drive consumer choices,” noted Paul Diego Craney, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance.

“The Healey administration was wise to delay the implantation of these new rules, but that doesn’t mean they deserve any praise from the public. These arbitrary rules and others like them are simply pageantry contests with other states, and virtue signaling to activists and other political elites. States like New Hampshire, which is currently ranked far ahead of us as far as economic competitiveness, don’t do this to their small businesses and consumers and it shows. The middle class Massachusetts taxpayers will ultimately be the ones to feel it the most when costs of goods skyrocket due to these insane mandates,” commented Craney.

The MassDEP Commissioner announced the delay of the Heavy-Duty Omnibus regulation for one year, starting in Model Year 2026, and to apply enforcement discretion for vehicles used for snow plowing and snow removal purposes (e.g., dump trucks, salt and sand spreaders, front end loaders) and street sweeping vehicles for two Model Years (MY2025 and MY2026) for state and municipal vehicle purchases. Additional information will be posted on MassDEP’s website later today at https://www.mass.gov/guides/massachusetts-low-emission-vehicle-lev-program.