Republican Senators Oppose First Heavy-Duty Truck Emissions Reform in 20 Years

The senators said the Biden administration rule finalized in December was overly challenging to implement, would make trucks cost prohibitive for small business owners and would increase supply chain costs. [...]

Republican Senator Deb Fischer of Nebraska, who is leading the effort to repeal the rule, said the “aggressive” EPA rule would incentivize “operators to keep using older, higher-emitting trucks for longer.”

The new EPA rules target heavy-duty truck and engine manufacturers by tightening yearly emissions limits and changing key provisions of existing rules to ensure emissions reductions in long-term road use. The rules toughen test procedures, regulatory useful life requirements and emission-related warranties.

“It’s really important, especially for protecting the health of the 72 million people living near truck freight routes in America,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan told Reuters in December. The rule would reduce smog-forming nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions by as much as 48% by 2045, he added.

Todd Spencer, president of Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, said if small business truckers could not afford the new, compliant trucks they would stick with older, less efficient trucks or exit the industry entirely.

Some environmental groups said they backed the rules, while others said the EPA had not gone far enough to protect public health from emissions.

The Dallas-based airline attributed the breakdown in service to a “historic” winter storm, both in size and scale, which caused frozen jet bridges and icy aircraft engines.

It has also defended its computer system, saying the technology “worked as designed,” while adding the airline has tapped General Electric Co to improve crew rescheduling capability and hired consultant Oliver Wyman, a unit of Marsh McLennan, to recommend operational changes.

Southwest’s Chief Operating Officer Andrew Watterson repeated that message in his testimony, saying the airline experienced a “historic event” with a combination of challenges it had not confronted before.

“What began as a weather event on December 21st turned into a crew scheduling event by December 24th,” said Watterson.

But Southwest’s pilot union, which is in contract negotiations with Southwest, blames the company and its leadership for a “failure” to modernize crew management processes and technology and to prepare for the storm.

Casey Murray, president of the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association (SWAPA) said the union has been sounding the alarm about the carrier’s crew scheduling technology and “outdated” operational processes for years.

“Unfortunately, those warnings were summarily ignored,” he said.

Volvo Cars, which is majority-owned by Chinese automotive company Geely Holding, said its fourth-quarter operating profit dropped to 3.4 billion crowns ($322.2 million) from 3.7 billion crowns a year earlier.

Profits were hit by high lithium prices, and having to buy semiconductors and logistics in the spot market, which can be more expensive than under long term contracts.

Volvo Cars and its peers have faced lingering chip shortages over the past year that have periodically hit manufacturing, with the Sweden-based company forced at times to halt production at some factories temporarily.

However, Volvo Cars reaffirmed its mid-decade targets, which include selling cars at an annual run-rate of 1.2 million, with half of them electric. Some analysts had said ahead of the report that target was too ambitious.

“We remain doubtful whether the company will be able to achieve these targets before 2027 and think the company will have to significantly stretch its definition of ‘mid-decade’,” Bernstein said.

With supply chains already under pressure, auto makers are eager to avoid a battery materials shortage like the squeeze on semiconductors over the past few years. That bottleneck was so severe it caused manufacturers to throttle production and ration chips, shifting them to their most profitable models, and to form closer relationships with chip manufacturers.

Now the auto industry is beginning to move closer to suppliers of key battery materials, including investing in mining and processing companies. General Motors Co. has discussed taking a small stake in Brazilian miner Vale SA’s base metals unit, which processes nickel and other metals needed to build batteries for EVs.

Volkswagen AG, Europe’s biggest auto maker by sales, hasn’t ruled out investing in miners. When the company began producing EVs several years ago, it revamped its components business, choosing to make many of the components in-house. It is also building several battery plants in Europe and is looking for a site for a North American battery plant.

Last year, Tesla Inc. held early-stage talks with Glencore PLC about buying a stake in the commodities giant. Glencore mines about one-third of the world’s cobalt supply, much of it from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Tesla eventually pulled out of the talks, highlighting the concern over the reputational risks that could come with a direct involvement in mining.

Slumping sales of the Sentra and Versa small cars and Kicks compact crossover helped fuel an overall 6.9 percent decline in global sales at Nissan Motor Co. for the October to December quarter.

COO Ashwani Gupta said sales of those models, all made in Mexico, have been torpedoed by severe production constraints caused by the ongoing global semiconductor shortage.

“Where we faced the challenge was Sentra, Kicks and Versa, which dropped 40 percent with respect to last year because of the very particular semiconductor shortage for these cars,” Gupta said Thursday in announcing the Japanese carmaker’s fiscal third-quarter financial results.

Traditionally, these popular nameplates combine to comprise about 18 percent of U.S. dealer inventory. But recently, they have accounted for as little as 5 percent of stock.

North American production of the Versa, for example, plunged 45 percent in 2022, to 61,799 vehicles for the full year, as U.S. sales of the popular economy car tanked 78 percent, according to the Automotive News Data Center. Sentra sales dropped 40 percent, while Kicks fell 34 percent.

Gupta said output and sales will start to recover in the current quarter ending March 31.