MEPs of the European Union voted to adopt strict new rules regarding emissions from trucking and busses today, seeking a 90% reduction in total fleet CO2 emissions by 2040 — but there’s a big loophole involved. While initial planning from the EU Commission sought to categorize effectively all ICE trucks and busses as CO2-emitting, the EU Parliament has other ideas.
Under the proposed rules adopted today, medium and heavy-duty trucks using biofuels and e-fuels will be exempt from fleet CO2 calculations, and in effect considered zero emission. Busses using biomethane will be similarly exempted. The change was adopted at the behest of more conservative ministers in Parliament, including those from the German CDU party. Their reasoning is, at best, duplicitous: Ministers in support claim not to want to take “green” fuel technologies under development off…