Biden's Electric Truck Effort Grilled on Capitol Hill

The hearing before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee's highway subcommittee on Tuesday prefaced a Congressional Review Act joint resolution of disapproval expected to be introduced in the Senate on Wednesday.

If the resolution is approved by both houses of Congress and signed by the president — or if Congress can override the president's veto — the Environmental Protection Agency's Phase 3 greenhouse gas emissions standards for heavy-duty trucks would be overturned.

At Tuesday's hearing, the regulation's biggest supporter among a panel of four witnesses was optimistic that the U.S. would be able to meet EPA's zero-emission standards for truck manufacturers beginning with the 2027 model year.

"That's in part because the industry is stepping up" testified Nick Nigro, founder of Atlas Public Policy, which specializes in policy aimed at accelerating electric vehicle markets.

"The three truck manufacturers that make up nearly three-quarters of the medium- and heavy-duty market — Daimler Truck, Volvo Group, Navistar — aim to only sell zero emisson vehicles by 2040."

Those manufacturers and other companies, including trucking operators J.B. Hunt JBHT and Pitt Ohio, formed an association earlier this year, Powering America's Commercial Transportation, focused on advancing zero-emission infrastructure.

"That appears to be the biggest barrier right now to truck deployment: making sure the infrastructure can get deployed as quickly as the trucks can be built" Nigro said.

He acknowledged user acceptance as another barrier, "as the trucking industry is known for its risk-averse approach to adopting new technologies" he stated in his written testimony. "Specifically, there is a misconception that zero-emission technologies are unproven in terms of durability and reliability, which has slowed down their adoption."

But he also noted that the lack of truck parking creates an opportunity to address both charging infrastructure and parking challenges.

"Investing in the development of truck parking facilities equipped with chargers and amenities, such as showers and convenience stores, can support the deployment of zero-emission trucks while improving driver comfort and safety."

Pitt Ohio's EV challenges

Taki Darakos, vice president of vehicle maintenance at Pitt Ohio, testified on behalf of the American Trucking Associations, outlining some of the challenges his company has had as an early adopter of electric trucks. Just trying to add three megawatts of power at the company's Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, facility "has been an incredibly long process" Darakos said.

"When complete in early 2025 this power upgrade will have taken two years. Had we asked for more power [from the public utility], it would have pushed the lead time to five years. Looking over our network, we have 12 facilities that would make sense to start the infrastructure upgrade process. At those 12 facilities, we will be working with 10 different utility partners to make this happen."

Darakos also testified about issues with the trucks themselves, which, compared with diesel-engine trucks, can take much longer to repair, he said.

"My biggest concern is parking and having access to chargers over the road. Also, when you look at the hours-of-service rules, I can't imagine what a driver is going to go through. There are 10 chargers at a site, and sometime during their rest time they have to wake up and move their rig to allow someone else [to charge]."

Truck stops, fuel marketers want more incentives

Asked about the feasibility of the administration's zero-emissions goals from the perspective of truck stop operators and fuel marketers, Kim Okafor, speaking on their behalf as general manager at Love's Travel Stops, said that if demand is not there, investors will not want to participate in building the grid.

"We've done this before with the biodiesel market, having a two-sided [supply and demand] incentive structure" she said. "Without that, I think it will be a challenge to get there."

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