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Why is Massachusetts slow-rolling this emissions rule for trucks?
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It’s Friday! Before we do a Lipa into the weekend, let’s get to the news:
What the truck? Gov. Maura Healey’s administration is delaying a new tailpipe emissions rule for heavy-duty trucks, following recent pushback from the trucking industry and some lawmakers. The state was set to start enforcing the requirement that engines emit fewer pollutants with 2025 model vehicles. But now, the state’s Department of Environmental Protection says those limits won’t be rolled out until at least 2026 — with mixed reception. Here’s a breakdown:
- What would the rule do? To simplify it, the 2021 “Heavy-duty Omnibus” rule requires truck-makers to sell lower-emission engines. It wouldn’t apply to vehicles already on the road. The rule is separate from another state rule requiring manufacturers to increasingly sell a higher percentage of electric trucks — though both are modeled after rules first passed in California.
- What’s the reason for it? First, the state is trying to reduce its carbon footprint to curb climate change. Second, it’s a public health issue. Given the research on the link between vehicle emissions and deaths, Conservation Law Foundation attorney Caitlin Peale Sloan says the rule would “immediately” make a difference to communities near industrial facilities, sand and gravel companies and other places that use heavy-duty vehicles.
- Why the delay? The local trucking association says only a few engines on the market currently meet the required standards — and are “much more expensive.” In a letter last Friday, MassDEP Commissioner Bonnie Heiple cited that engine shortage. She also noted California has yet to get a federal waiver to enforce its rule, meaning Massachusetts wouldn’t be able to enforce its version either.
- In related news: Remember the other rule requiring a higher percentage of electric trucks to be sold? State officials say some manufacturers have responded by reducing the overall number of diesel trucks they sell — which has made it hard for local agencies and governments to buy snow-plowing trucks and street sweepers. So, they’re also creating a two-year exception for those purchases.
- What’s the response? Environmental advocates don’t buy the excuses. “What we’ve seen is a coordinated effort by the motor vehicle manufacturing industry and the fossil fuel industry to slow the implementation of rules that are going to save a lot of lives,” Sloan told WBUR’s Amy Sokolow. Meanwhile, Paul Diego Craney, a spokesperson for the conservative Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, said the Healey administration was “wise” to delay the rules and said the state should “stay on pace with federal EPA standards.”
- Go deeper: The EPA set new rules this year to clean up heavy trucking; it’s set to start phasing in with model year 2027.
Study-in sagas: Over two dozen Harvard faculty members have been banned from entering the school’s flagship Widener Library for two weeks, after they participated in a recent “silent study-in.” The protest was over Harvard’s decision to ban more than a dozen students from the same library after they held a multi-week study-in protest in the library over the war in Gaza. The Harvard Crimson has more here.
- Meanwhile: The Crimson reports Harvard also suspended at least 60 students from its law school library over a separate study-in. That prompted more than 50 other students to protest the move by staging another study-in at the law school library yesterday.
‘Bro woes: Rhode Island-based toy company Hasbro is laying off dozens of employees, as it considers moving its headquarters from Pawtucket to Boston. In a statement, Hasbro said fewer than 100 people will be let go — half of which are based in Rhode Island.
- The company also confirmed it’s exploring a new headquarters, but said any move wouldn’t happen before mid-2026.
Name change: A main road outside the Arnold Arboretum officially gets a new name today. WBUR’s Sydney Ko reports Bussey Street — named after a merchant who amassed wealth from tobacco, sugar and the slave trade — will be renamed Flora Way. The new name honors Flora, a Black woman who was enslaved nearby in the 1700s.
- At the same time, Bussey’s name will stay on other parts of the Arboretum landscape, as part of an effort not to “demonize” the philanthropist, Arboretum Director Ned Friedman told Sydney.
Now arriving: The final Orange Line closure of the year begins tomorrow. Train service between Ruggles and Oak Grove will be suspended all weekend. (Click here for details of shuttles, etc.)
- The diversion continues next week — but only between North Station and Oak Grove. In addition to shuttles, T officials say the Haverhill commuter rail line will be free from Malden to Boston.
P.S. — Which Celtics legend now has a bridge named after him near TD Garden? Take our Boston News Quiz and test your knowledge.
