Massachusetts Delays Trucking Regulations

Last week, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) announced that it will be filing emergency regulations to delay implementation of the Heavy-Duty Omnibus (HDO) regulation until Model Year (MY) 2026, and will use its enforcement discretion under the Advanced Clean Trucks (ACT) regulation to exempt, from programmatic compliance, snow removal vehicles (e.g., snowplows, dump trucks) purchased by state and local agencies for MY 2025 and 2026.

According to MassDEP, the HDO delay is needed because California has not received the necessary waiver from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, as well as the simple fact that the market is not currently positioned to supply sufficient quantities of HDO-compliant engines.

Regarding ACT, state officials decided to exempt vehicles used for snowplowing and snow removal purposes after hearing from municipalities about the challenges associated with finding electric trucks to accomplish these tasks.

Leslie Anderson, Executive Director of the Propane Gas Association of New England (PGANE), has been combating the HDO and ACT in Massachusetts since the standards were first proposed. “This is a good first step, but we also need to have MassDEP exempt propane delivery and service vehicles as we requested in our letter to the state last month,” said Anderson. “Running propane autogas vehicles would be a cleaner solution for Massachusetts than electric vehicles since their electric grid has nearly twice the carbon intensity of propane.”

As of the 2023 industry sales report, Massachusetts was the 21^st largest propane market in the country, with 128 million gallons sold. For more information, contact NPGA’s Director of State Affairs, Jacob Peterson.