Congress blocks EPA from regulating truck emissions, favoring industry over air quality
S. 990 — Freedom to Haul Act of 2025 · Filed by Dan Sullivan (R-AK) · 17 cosponsors · Introduced Mar 12, 2025 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
Enter a ZIP to see where your representative and both senators stood on this bill.
Looked up on this device — your ZIP is never stored on our servers.
What it does
This bill blocks the EPA from enforcing its 2024 heavy-duty vehicle emissions rule (Phase 3) and amends the Clean Air Act to prohibit tailpipe regulations from mandating specific engine technologies or reducing the availability of new vehicles based on engine type. In effect, it prevents the EPA from using emissions standards to phase out or restrict gas-powered trucks and heavy vehicles, and requires the EPA to rewrite existing regulations to comply within two years.
Why we flagged it
The bill's core mechanism is a direct prohibition on EPA enforcement of a specific emissions rule, coupled with a statutory amendment that strips the EPA of regulatory authority to mandate cleaner engine technology or reduce vehicle availability by powertrain type. This is deregulation by legislative override, not a transparent policy debate.
What the text implies
- The prohibition on 'limiting availability of new motor vehicles based on the type of new motor vehicle engine' effectively locks in internal-combustion engine dominance by preventing EPA from using emissions standards as a lever to accelerate electrification or alternative-fuel adoption in the heavy-duty sector.
- The two-year mandate to 'revise regulations to conform' to the new statutory language will force the EPA to gut existing tailpipe standards across multiple vehicle classes (not just Phase 3), potentially affecting light-duty vehicles as well depending on regulatory interpretation.
The full analysis lists 4 implications of this text.
Who stands to gain
heavy-duty vehicle manufacturers (Volvo, Daimler, Paccar, Navistar, Cummins); diesel engine manufacturers; trucking and logistics companies (reduced compliance costs)