The president of Tennessee Technological University has told federal officials to disregard a TTU study that claimed so-called “glider” semi-trucks—which use a legal exemption to get around modern pollution controls—emit no more pollutants than trucks that have the controls. In a letter, the TTU president, Philip B. Oldham, said “experts within the university have questioned the methodology and accuracy” of the study.
That’s sugarcoating what looks to be another classic case of foxes funding an interpretation of data that promotes leaving the henhouse door open and calling this great news for the chickens.
The 2016 study seemed to give scientific support for continuing to build the trucks. It was paid for by a TTU donor, Fitzgerald Collision & Repair, the largest maker of glider trucks in the United States. In addition, the company announced in August that it will partner with the university in building a new research center on Fitzgerald land. Oldham had previously signed a letter backing the study. And he has touted Fitzgerald at company-sponsored events. All this has produced a ruckus on campus and a probe into possible academic misconduct in producing the study.
Under President Obama, the Environmental Protection Agency finalized a rule to cut particulate and nitrogen oxide pollution in newly built heavy trucks. But rebuilt engines aren’t required to meet limits on emissions from diesel-fueled trucks because they were originally built before 2001. So Fitzgerald and other companies buy glider trucks without engines, transmissions, and rear axles, then install salvaged engines that have been rebuilt down to the core.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, those rebuilt engines spew 43-55 times more emissions than other new big rigs. Fitzgerald has argued otherwise, pointing to the study it bought. The Obama era rule limited to 300 the total gliders allowed to be built each year. In November, EPA Chief Scott Pruitt announced he was exempting Fitzgerald and a couple of other manufacturers from the cap. The company now builds about 3,500 of the 10,000 gliders manufactured in the U.S. each year. The EPA is also reviewing the rule as a whole.
Tennessee Republican Rep. Diane Black, who received some $225,000 in campaign contributions from Fitzgerald family members and employees, had forwarded the TTU study to Pruitt.
Eric Lipton reports:
The letter from Mr. Oldham followed a separate letter on Friday from Darrell Hoy, interim dean at Tennessee Tech’s College of Engineering, directed to faculty leaders at the university. It urged Mr. Oldham to suspend the university’s support for the study, which Mr. Hoy said was largely handled by a graduate student, not an engineering expert.
“No qualified, credentialed engineering faculty member (1) oversaw the testing, (2) verified the data or calculations of the graduate student, (3) wrote or reviewed the final report submitted to Fitzgerald, or (4) wrote or reviewed the letter submitted to Diane Black with the far-fetched, scientifically implausible claim, that remanufactured truck engines met or exceeded the performance of modern, pollution-controlled engines with regards to emissions,” Mr. Hoy’s letter said.
The EPA released a statement Wednesday saying that it didn’t cite the TTU study in making the decision to exempt manufacturers from the cap and review the rule after a public comment period. Instead, the agency determined that it doesn’t have authority under the Clean Air Act to limit the production of gliders.
Having sued the EPA 14 times before taking over the top job there, Pruitt, of course, thinks EPA doesn’t have the authority to do a lot of things that it does, and he’s determined to do what he can to hollow out the agency by cutting its budget, greatly reducing its already historically small staff, and gutting its rules.