Overdrive

March 2018

Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info

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March 2018 | Overdrive | 23 GET INTO YOUR COMFORT ZONE GET INTO YOUR COMFORT COMFORT ZONE Configure yours today at www.bostromseating.com Wide Ride Core Since 1935 1-800-459-7328 | www.facebook.com/bostromseating O P T I O N A L " S M A R T " D U M P + M E M O R Y V AL VE Untitled-39 1 2/15/18 8:51 AM Tennessee Technological University, which performed a study for Fitzgerald Glider Kits to measure glider kit emissions, told the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to disregard the study until the university can "assure its validity." EPA referenced the report's conclusions last year when it proposed rescinding emissions regulations placed on glider kit makers by the Obama-era EPA in 2016. That proposal has not reached a final rule stage. The existing regulations are slated to take effect this year and would, if upheld, require glider makers such as Fitzgerald to retool the older engines used in gliders to meet the new restrictions. Fitzgerald and others say the regulations would effectively kill the glider industry. TTU's study concluded that gliders do not produce greater emissions of nitrogen oxide and greenhouse gases than new trucks, contradicting EPA's own studies. EPA cited TTU's conclusions several times in its 2017 proposal to roll back the Obama-era regulations, though recently EPA Adminis- trator Scott Pruitt told The New York Times the agency did not rely on the study to formulate that proposal. In a Feb. 19 letter to Pruitt, TTU President Philip B. Old- ham said the study's research was under investigation after questions were raised by faculty members about its "methodol- ogy and accuracy," as well as a claim of "research misconduct related to the study." A Fitzgerald spokesman says the company "has every Study used in glider emissions reversal under review confidence in the integrity of the Tennessee Tech study and the person- nel who conducted it. The results were not predetermined. Fitzgerald Glider Kits employees had no involvement in the monitoring or testing performed in connection with the study." TTU officials have declined to dis- cuss the matter further. – James Jaillet

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