Too bad you can’t build “Gliders” in the railroad industry, as they do in trucking. (Google it.) There would be a big market for them.
Perhaps a market, but that would essentially defeat the purpose of having pollution standards at all.
According to the EPA, emissions from glider vehicles tested under highway conditions had nitrogen oxide emissions 43 times higher than newer trucks and particulate matter emissions 55 times higher. Emissions of particulate matter and nitrogen oxides (NOx) of roughly 10,000 glider kits was equivalent to about 100,000 new trucks. They're gross polluters that cause damage to the environment and to people's health.
The EPA is weighing glider regulations, but it's possible they will end up being required to meet the same standards as newer trucks.
OK, now let me get this straight, it is OK with the EPA for highway trucks and railroad diesel electric locomotives to use/burn hugeadditional amounts of #2 diesel fuel, so long as the exhaust is "cleaner"? Where are the idiots in our government coming up with such great ideas?
Don't know where the statement that highway trucks "use/burn huge additional amounts of#2 diesel fuel" comes from. Figures are that some gliders currently may get up to 1 mpg better mileage than the new trucks - not that much. And mandates through 2027 will increase mileage standards for new trucks, so they will use far less fuel than gliders. The big deal with gliders is lower purchase cost (a factor more important to owner/operators than the large trucking companies). Lower operating cost due to avoidance of purchasing DEF is also cited by some as a factor, and lower maintenance costs. But the newer trucks burning huge additional amounts of fuel? No. Not mentioned as a factor.
Scientists have found glider trucks produce 40- to 50- times more pollution than trucks made since 2014 when tougher emissions standards went into effect. They may be cheaper to operate, but that’s only when they are subsidized by the health and well-being of human beings and other organisms.
Experts have estimated that the U.S. has been spared thousands of premature deaths and hundreds of thousands of cases of respiratory illnesses because the government has clamped down on exhaust from diesel engines that are 10 times more polluting than their gasoline counterparts. Diesel air pollution is categorized as a Group 1 human carcinogen, joining such A-listers as tobacco and mustard gas, according to the World Health Organization.
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) jointly issued the second round of greenhouse gas (GHG) and fuel reduction rules for medium- and heavy-duty trucks. These will be phased-in between 2021 and 2027.
The recommended rule estimated that when fully phased in by 2027, tractor-trailers would recover additional costs associated with the regulations within two years of ownership through a fuel use reduction of 24 percent for tractors and 8 percent for the more efficient trailers.
