The EPA wants to repeal pollution standards for trucking components that even the trucking industry embraces

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has submitted a proposal to the Office of Management and Budget to repeal an Obama-era rule that would cut emissions from the trucking industry. The rule, which would go into effect on January 1, 2018, closes a loophole: Trucking companies can circumvent the stricter pollution standards that apply to new trucks by combining a new frame with an older, dirtier engine. The Obama administration’s rule prevents that practice by applying emissions standards to trucking components called gliders and trailers. The trucking industry, the Washington Post reports, supports the rule. In September, manufacturers Volvo Group North America, Cummins, and Navistar—along with the Truck and Engine Manufacturers Association, the American Trucking Associations, and the Truck Rental and Leasing Association—penned a letter to EPA chief Scott Pruitt urging him not to repeal it. But Pruitt doesn’t seem to care about that, or about the estimate that the rule could prevent up to 1,600 premature deaths from air pollution annually. What he does care about is the “significant issues raised”…during a private meeting with a glider manufacturer that has lobbied to repeal the rule.