Wheeler Concedes Defeat on Glider Non-Enforcement Decision

Decision Comes Days After D.C. Circuit Freezes EPA’s Action
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Jonathon Berman, jonathon.berman@sierraclub.org

Washington, DC -- Tonight, Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler reversed course and withdrew EPA’s No Action Assurance on the glider truck rule. Agreeing with environmental groups’ and states’ claims in the challenges filed last week in the D. C. Circuit, Wheeler’s decision acknowledges that the no action assurance violated EPA’s own policy, which provides that that mechanism should be used only in extremely unusual, narrow circumstances necessary to protect the public interest. Wheeler acknowledged that the application of the glider rule to the glider industry does not represent such circumstances.

In response, Sierra Club Chief Climate Counsel Joanne Spalding released the following statement:

“Andrew Wheeler is losing even faster than disgraced former administrator Scott Pruitt. Tonight, the wheels have come off Wheeler’s tenure as he conceded defeat on EPA’s decision to not enforce the super-polluter trucks rule just days after EPA made the decision. Wheeler must come to the realization that he can’t just change the rules for the corporate polluters he represented for so long, at the expense of public health.”

 

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