The Environmental Protection Agency’s internal watchdog panel says the agency skirted required steps in the process of crafting a rule to repeal regulations that capped production of glider kit trucks. The finding delivers another blow to an early Trump-era push to roll back those regs, though it has no immediate impact on current glider kit production.
The glider kit limits have remained in place since taking effect in 2018, with EPA having tabled the repeal well before the investigation by its Office of Inspector General began. OIG released the results of its findings Thursday, Dec. 5.
EPA’s OIG did not question the rule’s contents — that is, its intentions to repeal the regulations. Rather, it simply concluded that EPA did not produce analyses on cost-benefit and health impacts, which are required by federal law when an agency undertakes such a rulemaking.
It’s unclear whether EPA will proceed with the rule. It has been tabled since mid-2018.
The glider kit regs were included in the Phase II truck and trailer emissions rule enacted in 2016 by the Obama-era EPA. Under the Phase II rule, glider vehicle manufacturers are limited to building 300 trucks a year that don’t meet Phase II standards for emissions of greenhouse gases, nitrous oxide and particulate matter.
Fitzgerald Glider Kits, the country’s largest glider kit builder prior to the implementation of those regulations, had been manufacturing 5,000 to 10,000 kits a year.
Starting in 2021, all glider kits must meet the emissions standards stipulated by the Phase II rule. That means glider kits would likely need to be outfitted with a 2010 or newer engine.
