Waiting on EPA ‘27 rule, Rush says it might not be soon

With the trucking sector anticipating the release of the final rule by the Environmental Protection Agency on nitrogen oxide (NoX) standards–known colloquially as EPA ‘27–and what engines need to do to get there, one of the country’s biggest truck retailers took the issue head on its recent earnings call with analysts.

The message by William Rush, the CEO of Rush Enterprises (NASDAQ: RUSHA) and known through the industry as Rusty, was that the final rule may not be coming down anytime soon.

Rush said on the company’s earnings call with analysts Wednesday that “I’m hearing we’re not going to get it in November,” “it” being a final EPA decision following its July Notice of Proposed Rulemaking covering potential amendments to the earlier rule on NoX emissions from heavy-duty vehicles.

The initial proposed regulation and its amendments have numerous parts. But at the core, it will require about an 80% reduction in NoX emissions to get down to 0.035 g/bhp-hr, which represents grams of pollutant per brake horsepower-hour. There is no change in that basic part of the proposal.

This story was originally published by FreightWaves. Read the full story at FreightWaves →