FINAL FAREWELL

Report: Pruitt Quietly Scraps Limit on ‘Super Polluting’ Trucks on Last Day

In the last hours of his tenure as EPA administrator.

Scott Pruitt reportedly gave a major victory to manufacturers of “super polluting freight trucks” in his final hours as Environmental Protection Agency administrator on Friday. Agency officials cited by The New York Times say Pruitt essentially lifted an annual cap on manufacturers of glider trucks, which use old engines lacking emissions controls and produce up to 55 times the amount of pollution as more modern trucks. While the annual cap of 300 gliders per manufacturer will remain on paper, an EPA spokeswoman told the Times the agency would use its “enforcement discretion” in 2018 and 2019 to allow manufacturers to ignore the rule. The agency also reportedly hopes to permanently scrap the limit by the end of 2019. Vickie Patton, the general counsel at the Environmental Defense Fund, accused Pruitt and Andrew Wheeler, now the acting EPA administrator, of “creating a loophole for super polluting freight trucks that will fill our children’s lungs with toxic diesel pollution” with the move, the Times reports.