Last Thursday in Chicago, NRMCA Vice President, Compliance and Regulatory Affairs Kevin Walgenbach testified before the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) during a joint public hearing on proposed Phase 2 regulations intended to mandate increased fuel efficiency and reduced carbon emissions from heavy-duty vehicles, such as ready mixed concrete trucks. The new standard aims to reduce CO2 emissions by 24 percent with a similar fuel efficiency increase for covered vehicles, model years 2021-2027.

Although NRMCA holds concerns with the proposal regarding costs and technology reliance, last week’s testimony focused on truck weight issues. "Due to the reality of the necessary configuration of trucks hauling ready mixed concrete, combined with current regulations from numerous other U.S. regulatory bodies, weight poses a very unique and continuing challenge to the concrete industry," testified Walgenbach. "The consequence of adding more weight to mixer trucks for Phase 2 compliance results in achieving the opposite goal of Phase 2. Simply put, if the industry is forced to reduce payload in order to meet low weight tolerances, the industry will then be forced to use more trucks, making more trips to deliver the same amount of concrete. More trips means increased emissions, increased fuel consumption, more trucks sitting in traffic, and longer hours for industry drivers."

"The ready mixed concrete industry is merely asking for the opportunity to be compliant with Phase 2 and still be productive. To this end, NRMCA recommends that EPA and NHTSA, instead of pushing weight reductions, advocate for increased weight tolerances in amounts large enough to offset the weights of new equipment and technology that will be employed for compliance with Phase 2," Walgenbach concluded.

There will be a second public hearing Tuesday, August 18, in Long Beach, CA. Written comments on the proposal are due Thursday, September 17.

Click here for more information and to review the proposed rule. For more information, contact Kevin Walgenbach at kwalgenbach@nrmca.org.