The EPA's rule is intended to push truckers to phase out diesel-powered vehicles and use electric vehicles (EV) instead. Compliance costs associated with such rules could suffocate an industry, squeezing out small and mid-size trucking companies that cannot afford to transition to EVs.

The agency's trucking rules are less strict than California's regulations as heavy vehicles in the state must cut nitrogen oxide emissions by 75% starting in 2024, and 90% starting in 2027, according to a California Air Resource Board rule. California's trucking regulations were responsible for choking the supply chain during COVID as non-compliant trucks were not allowed in to ports and ships were backed up unable to unload.

The Environmental Protection Agency finalized a rule Tuesday that will impose stricter emissions standards on new heavy-duty vehicles, a regulation that will significantly raise operating costs for truckers, experts and industry representatives told the Daily Caller News Foundation.