The facts are clear: The US must push forward a swift and affordable transition to zero emissions technology in our trucks.
For years, GreenLatinos has advocated, written, and commented extensively on how emissions from trucks harm our communities and must be subject to more stringent regulations.
The truck companies Paccar, Cummins, and Daimler have told their investors they're ready for cleaner truck standards. But behind closed doors, and on stage at this summer’s Great American State Fair, they've been telling a different story.
As part of our latest action in this arena, GreenLatinos has led a coalition of environmental, public health, labor, and faith organizations in a letter to the CEOs of Paccar, Cummins, and Daimler, calling out the companies for backing efforts to weaken implementation of the EPA's heavy-duty nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions standards, set to take effect in 2027.
The contradiction is hard to miss. On recent earnings calls, Paccar said it was "prepared" for the new 35mg NOx standard and "ready to go with it." Cummins told investors it would "be ready to launch" its products under the 2027 rule. Daimler has confirmed it already has an engine that meets the standard. Yet all three companies are now supporting a rollback — and letting the American Trucking Associations lobby on their behalf to delay it. Manufacturers this large and this profitable don't get to walk away from the consequences of their own lobbying — accountability starts with owning the public health impact of the standards they fight to delay.
The stakes are not abstract. Heavy-duty trucks make up just 6% of vehicles on the road but are responsible for 59% of the transportation sector's NOx emissions and 55% of its particulate pollution — the kind of pollution that drives asthma, heart disease, strokes, and premature death in communities near highways, warehouses, and ports. Truck drivers themselves carry an outsized share of that burden: diesel exhaust that builds up inside truck cabins has been linked to some of the highest lung cancer mortality rates of any occupation.
The technology to fix this already exists. It's been running in Europe and China for years, and it's built on the same selective catalytic reduction systems manufacturers have used to meet U.S. standards for the past 15 years. This isn't a technology gap — it's a manufactured delay.
GreenLatinos and our coalition partners are calling on Paccar, Cummins, and Daimler to reverse course: drop support for the rollback, defend full implementation of the 2027 NOx standards, and press the American Trucking Associations to withdraw its opposition. We're also calling on the companies to be transparent about their role in ATA's lobbying strategy and to be held accountable — publicly and directly — for the health costs of every year this delay drags on. Cleaner air for truck drivers and the communities living along freight corridors shouldn't be a bargaining chip in a fight the industry already knows how to win.
