Leading a coalition of 12 attorneys general, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra today filed his strong opposition to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s proposal to repeal regulations that place strict emissions standards on highly polluting “glider” trucks.

Known as the 2016 Glider Rule, the regulations mandate that most engines installed in “gliders” – new heavy-duty truck bodies outfitted with refurbished or rebuilt pre-2010 highly polluting engines – meet the same emissions standards applicable to all newly manufactured engines.

“Repealing the Glider Rule is bad for our environment, for the health of our families, and for truckers and shippers who play by the rules and operate trucks with cleaner fuel-burning engines,” Becerra said.

“Under the Clean Air Act, the EPA is required to set and enforce motor-vehicle emissions standards,” he said. “If EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt decides to neglect this legal responsibility by doing away with the Glider Rule, we are prepared to take any and all action to protect the air our children breathe and the vitality and level playing field of the trucking industry, an important sector of our economy.”

Gliders that do not comply with the 2016 Glider Rule produce 20 to 40 times more emissions of hazardous pollutants that are linked to asthma, low birth weight, infant mortality, and lung cancer.

The EPA has estimated that a single year in which it allowed 10,000 additional gliders to be produced with non-compliant engines could result in up to 1,600 premature deaths, 415,000 tons of additional nitrogen oxide emissions, and 6,800 tons of additional particulate matter emissions.

In California, and elsewhere, the rest of the trucking industry has already made substantial investments to comply with stringent emissions standards and would face an unlevel playing field if forced to continue to compete against unregulated glider manufacturers who avoid such investments.

Joining Becerra in filing today’s comments were the attorneys general of Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Vermont and Washington.

Since taking office, Attorney General Becerra has been committed to protecting the environment and important sectors of our state’s economy. Among other actions, he has filed a lawsuit against the Trump Administration over its decision to suspend the Waste Prevention Rule, which requires oil and natural gas producers to cut wasteful leakage of methane on federal lands; opposed the Administration’s illegal attempt to suspend for two years the 2015 Clean Water Rule, which would protect California’s lakes, rivers and streams from pollutants; and filed an amicus brief in support of the city of Oakland’s ordinance prohibiting the storage and handling of coal and petroleum coke at the Bulk Oversized Terminal.