The Environmental Protection Agency’s watchdog office is calling foul on regulatory relief Trump administration officials attempted to give to rebuilt trucks using old engines.
Former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt jammed through a proposal to repeal Obama-era restrictions on glider trucks, ordering agency staff not to conduct required reviews of the proposal’s costs, benefits, and human-health impacts, the EPA’s Office of Inspector General said in a report Thursday.
“According to EPA managers and officials, then-EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt directed that the Glider Repeal Rule be promulgated as quickly as possible,” the inspector general’s report reads.
The watchdog’s report adds that the “lack of analyses caused the public not to be informed” about the proposal’s true impacts.
Glider kits are new truck bodies that can be fitted with used engines. Trucks that use glider kits could have engines that predate the EPA’s air pollution controls.
According to EPA data, glider trucks emit dozens of times more pollution than new trucks. In a separate probe, the EPA inspector general found that research was conducted properly, despite allegations from glider-kit makers and other critics of foul play.
Under Pruitt’s leadership, the agency proposed repealing a 300-unit per company cap on glider kits that the Obama administration had tucked into its 2016 greenhouse gas limits for heavy-duty trucks. That proposal, however, was met with staunch opposition, including from major truck makers such as Daimler, Volvo, and Cummins, which argued allowing a loophole for glider trucks undercut the investments they were making to clean up their fleets.
In the report released Thursday, the EPA inspector general cited an October 2017 email from an EPA official to staff saying Pruitt and his top air adviser were asking for a repeal proposal in only a week.
“Based solely on a legal argument and no analysis,” the email reads, according to the report. “Apparently [Pruitt and his senior adviser for the Office of Air and Radiation] have a commitment from OMB that [OMB] will not require any analysis at all for [the proposed Glider Repeal Rule] action.”
The office of the EPA inspector general notes it wasn’t able to find proof of that agreement between the EPA and the White House Office of Management and Budget. However, the watchdog says OMB refused to provide the inspector general’s office with documents it was seeking on the rule.
The agency’s proposal to repeal the glider kit requirements has sat dormant for more than two years now. EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler’s first act as head of the agency was to walk back a move from Pruitt to temporarily relieve glider-kit makers from the requirements.
Glider-kit makers, however, continue to urge the EPA to complete the repeal, arguing the Obama-era requirements are costing jobs. Last month, Fitzgerald Glider Kits, the country’s largest maker of the equipment, was forced to close two facilities and lay off dozens of workers, according to local news reports.
It isn’t clear whether the EPA would still pursue a full repeal. The agency’s latest regulatory agenda lists the glider-kit rule as a long-term action but notes it is “proposing to revise” — not repeal — the cap.
The inspector general’s report also offers a glimpse into the EPA’s rule-making process during Pruitt’s tumultuous tenure atop the agency. EPA officials told watchdog office staff that few EPA technical experts were involved in developing the glider-kit repeal rule.
“According to one EPA official, Administrator Pruitt requested that all rulemakings be completed as quickly as possible,” the report says. “EPA officials also told us that, during this time, processes such as this rulemaking were being done ‘fast and loose,’ and the atmosphere was described as the ‘wild west.’”
