Fuel Emissions Freedom Act, Trucking and The Fight for America’s Backbone
The Fuel Emissions Freedom Act of 2025 would eliminate federal and state authority to regulate vehicle emissions and fuel standards, potentially saving truckers billions in compliance costs while sparking fierce debate over environmental protection and regulatory overreach.
On June 24, 2025, Representatives Roger Williams (R-TX), Michael Cloud (R-TX), and Troy Gill (R-TX) introduced H.R. 4117, the Fuel Emissions Freedom Act, a pro-trucker piece of legislation that would fundamentally reshape America's approach to vehicle emissions regs. This is a complete dismantling of the federal government's authority to control vehicle emissions.
The legislation takes an axe to decades of environmental regulation by:
Repealing Section 202 of the Clean Air Act, eliminating EPA's authority to set motor vehicle emission standards
Eliminating Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards managed by NHTSA
Prohibiting both federal and state governments from establishing, enforcing, or maintaining any fuel emission standards for motor vehicles
Nullifying California's special waiver authority to set stricter state-level emissions standards
Voiding any reference to existing emission standards in other federal laws, executive orders, or regulations
The legislation comes as Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has already begun the process of resetting CAFE standards. On his first day in office, Duffy signed a memorandum directing NHTSA to review and reconsider all existing fuel economy standards for vehicles from model year 2022 onward.
Duffy portrayed the action as removing government overreach by the Biden administration that had driven up the cost of new cars, with Biden-era standards requiring automakers to reach an average of 50.4 miles per gallon across their new-car fleets by the 2031 model year.
To understand the impact of this legislation, it's important to take in what truckers and fleets are currently dealing with.
Heavy-Duty Vehicles (Class 8 Trucks)
The EPA's Phase 3 greenhouse gas standards, finalized in March 2024, apply to heavy-duty vocational vehicles and tractors beginning with model year 2027, with increasingly ridiculous requirements through 2032. These standards are projected to cut greenhouse gas emissions by up to 60 percent by 2032 and prevent the release of 1 billion metric tons of carbon pollution.
In the final rule, roughly 30% of heavy-duty trucks would need to be zero-emission by 2032 and 40% of regional day cabs. This effectively pushes the industry toward electric vehicles, hydrogen fuel cells, or other zero-emission technologies.
Medium and Light-Duty Vehicles
The EPA's Multi-Pollutant Emissions Standards for model years 2027 and later light-duty and medium-duty vehicles set new standards to reduce harmful air pollutant emissions starting with model year 2027. This directly affects pickup trucks like your RAM Cummins and delivery vehicles.
The Real-World Pain
My RAM Cummins perfectly illustrates why this legislation resonates with truck owners. Having to replace an entire emissions system on a two-year-old truck with less than 70,000 miles represents the kind of costly, unreliable technology that the legislation's supporters point to as evidence of regulatory overreach.
Modern diesel emissions systems include:
Diesel Particulate Filters (DPF) that require regular regeneration cycles
Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) systems using diesel exhaust fluid (DEF)
Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) systems
Variable Geometry Turbochargers for emissions compliance
These systems add $15,000-$25,000 to the cost of a new truck and create ongoing maintenance nightmares that can sideline vehicles for days or weeks.
Military Gets a Pass
Federal law already exempts the US Armed Forces' tactical trucks from meeting the exhaust-emissions regulations that civilians must meet. Military vehicles can legally operate with engines that meet only 1999 regulations because they need to run on multiple fuels, including JP8 aircraft fuel, which is high in sulfur and incompatible with modern emissions equipment.
The military exemption exists because ultra-low-sulfur diesel fuel needed for current emissions systems is usually not available overseas, and the ability to run trucks on multiple fuels in a war zone is critical.
If national security justifies exempting military vehicles, why doesn't the same logic apply to the trucks that form America's economic lifeline?
Trucking is America's Critical Infrastructure
The numbers tell the story of trucking's dominance in freight movement:
Trucks transported 12.5 billion tons of freight valued at more than $13.1 trillion in 2020, about 65% and 73% of total freight weight and value, respectively
Trucking's freight volume was about 8.5 times higher than rail freight volume
Rail accounts for approximately 28% of US freight movement by ton-miles, but this is primarily bulk commodities over long distances.
Trucks transported 66.5% of the value of surface trade between the US and Canada and 84.5% between the US and Mexico in 2023
Even freight that moves by rail ultimately requires trucking for final delivery. 48% of rail traffic is intermodal, meaning containers that transfer to trucks for final delivery. Every grocery store, gas station, construction site, and manufacturing facility depends on trucks for delivery.
The Industry's Regulatory Burden
The legislation's findings argue that overlapping and ever-changing fuel emissions standards create long-term uncertainty for manufacturers and that this fragmented regulatory environment stifles innovation, disrupts supply chains, and burdens manufacturers and businesses.
The Clean Freight Coalition found that full electrification of the US medium- and heavy-duty commercial truck fleet would require nearly $1 trillion in infrastructure investment alone, with upwards of $620 billion from the trucking industry in chargers, site infrastructure and electric service upgrades.
American Trucking Association President Chris Spear opposed the current EPA rules because post-2030 targets remain "entirely unachievable given the current state of zero-emission technology, the lack of charging infrastructure, and restrictions on the power grid".
The regulatory landscape is already shifting. The EPA announced it is reconsidering stricter rules for model-year 2027 cars and trucks set by the Biden administration, describing this as part of "the biggest deregulatory action in US history".
The EPA said the auto and truck emissions rules would have imposed more than $700 billion in regulatory and compliance costs.
The Opposition
Environmental groups characterize the Fuel Emissions Freedom Act as a "freedom-to-pollute bill" that would eliminate federal authority to regulate automobile emissions and nullify existing regulations. EPA estimated that its most recent light-duty emissions standards would save up to 2,500 premature deaths per year in 2055.
National Security Argument for Trucking
The military exemption provides a perfect template for protecting trucking as critical infrastructure. Consider this:
Military vehicles are exempt because complex emissions systems can't compromise mission-critical transportation
America's supply chain is equally mission-critical to national and economic security
Trucking moves everything from food and medicine to fuel and construction materials
Supply chain disruptions pose genuine threats to national security and economic stability
Each American requires the movement of approximately 54 tons of freight per year. When trucks stop moving, the country stops functioning.
The Fuel Emissions Freedom Act faces long odds, with GovTrack estimating only a 4% chance of getting past committee and 1% chance of being enacted. However, the broader regulatory rollback under the Trump administration suggests significant changes are coming regardless.
The real question isn't whether emissions regulations will be relaxed, it's how much relief the trucking industry will get and how quickly it will come.
The Bottom Line for Truckers
The Fuel Emissions Freedom Act isthe most aggressive attempt to eliminate vehicle emissions regulations in modern history. While passage remains unlikely, the legislation signals a fundamental shift in how regulators view the balance between environmental protection and economic freedom.
For truck owners dealing with expensive, unreliable emissions systems, the legislation offers hope for relief from regulations that have imposed massive costs while delivering questionable benefits. For an industry that literally keeps America moving, the argument for treating trucking as protected critical infrastructure is overdue.
Whether through this legislation or administrative action, change is coming. The only question is how far it will go and how quickly we as fleets will feel the relief.