The Transport Project Files Suit on Behalf of RNG-Fueling Future

Washington, DC – The Transport Project (TTP) today joined a growing list of goods movement interests, trades, and energy and transportation organizations in filing with the DC Circuit Court of Appeals a Petition to Review the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Final Rule: Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standards for Heavy-Duty Vehicles – Phase 3.

The suit accompanies a Petition for Reconsideration also filed today with the EPA that details TTP’s objections to the Final Rule that:

Relies on incomplete data associated with the pace of compliant technology development and the related costs to fleets to comply;
Fails to acknowledge and incorporate provisions recognizing the significant emission reduction benefits of renewable biofuels like renewable natural gas (RNG) in reaching key emissions reduction targets; and
Ignores stakeholder requests and previous EPA commitments to include total life cycle assessment in its actions.

Statement from TTP Vice President of Government and Regulatory Affairs and General Counsel Jeffrey Clarke:

“This Final Rule unfairly and capriciously manipulates outcomes to advance favored technologies. Instead of accelerating the pace of all clean vehicle technology development and reducing greenhouse gas emissions and other harmful pollutants, this regulatory action would slow that progress by discouraging fleets from continuing the phase-in of more natural gas-fueled trucks and accelerating more RNG use.

“The Transport Project supports federal action to decarbonize heavy-duty transportation. Despite our cordial engagement and fact-based submissions, the EPA continues to ignore data supporting the advancement of RNG motor fuel as a compliant option. We therefore take this step to provide the EPA another opportunity to correct this fatal error in its rule, or alternatively, to ensure the Courts require EPA to evaluate all facts and address every submission before the Agency.”

According to data from the California Air Resources Board (CARB) the annual average carbon intensity score of the bio-CNG mix dispensed as a motor fuel across the state last year was -126.42 gCO2e/MJ.1¹

In fact, bio-CNG holds the lowest average carbon intensity of any clean fuel option on California’s roadways today and is the only fuel producing a negative carbon intensity fleet outcome in the California Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) Program, which includes electricity as well as ethanol, biodiesel, renewable diesel, bio-CNG, bio-LNG, alternative jet fuel, and hydrogen.²

The EPA Phase 3 Final Rule as written refuses to acknowledge or even attempt to refute those outcomes and validate RNG’s carbon-negative impact as an affordable, scalable, and available-now transportation fuel.

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The Transport Project is a national coalition of roughly 200 fleets, vehicle and engine manufacturers and dealers, servicers and suppliers, and fuel producers and providers dedicated to the decarbonization of North America’s transportation sector. Through the increased use of gaseous motor fuels including renewable natural gas and hydrogen, the United States and Canada can help achieve ambitious climate goals and greatly improve air quality safely, reliably, and effectively without delay and without compromising existing commercial business operations. Find out more at: transportproject.org.

California Air Resources Board, Low Carbon Fuel Standard Program Reporting Tool Quarterly. Available at: https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/resources/documents/low-carbon-fuel-standard-reporting-tool-quarterly-summaries. ↩︎
Ibid. ↩︎