Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, under the Clean Air Act, Congress directed the EPA to regulate ``any air pollutant from any class or classes of new motor vehicles or new motor vehicle engines, which may be reasonably anticipated to endanger public health or welfare.'' Congress further defined ``motor vehicle'' as a ``self-propelled vehicle designed for transporting persons or property on a street or highway.'' Mr. Chairman, any reasonable person would understand that self- propelled vehicle means a vehicle that can propel itself of its own initiative. One would think of pickup trucks, semis, vans, or cars. One thing that does not come to mind is the back portion of a tractor trailer being the trailer portion which has no way of self-propelling itself. Unfortunately, the EPA doesn't seem to see it that way. In last year's proposed rules for greenhouse gas emissions and fuel efficiency standards for on-road heavy-duty vehicles and engines, the EPA attempted to regulate truck trailers as self-propelled vehicles. Furthermore, the EPA has a voluntary program called SmartWay that provides engineering guidelines for aerodynamics and reduced truck weight. SmartWay, which is voluntary, is intended to improve fuel efficiency for combined tractor tailers. However, SmartWay only improves fuel efficiency when tractor trailers are traveling at highway speeds of more than 50 miles per hour.…”