Tell Congress: Keep bigger, heavier, more polluting trucks off our highways

The petition to Congress reads:

"As you consider upcoming legislation on infrastructure and climate change, I urge you to stand up against the special interests who seek to allow longer and heavier trucks that would endanger our families, cost taxpayers billions in highway repairs and subsidies and put our environment at risk."


The tragic weather events and horrific scenes of truck and car crashes in Texas and around the country this winter ensure that the dual issues of climate change and safe roads will be front and center when Congress begins debating infrastructure in the coming weeks.

That’s why big corporations and their lobbyists are working overtime to pressure Congress to allow heavier, longer and more polluting trucks on our highways.

The debate over major safety, infrastructure and environmental issues will involve immense pressure and false claims by lobbyists calling for changes in highway regulations that would allow longer and heavier trucks on our crumbling highways and bridges.

But the truth is, bigger trucks would ultimately spew a whopping 55 million tons of additional carbon emissions a year while crushing our highways and bridges. That’s equal to the pollution caused by 10 million additional cars each year.

An even more immediate threat lies in the fact that these bigger trucks are more dangerous. It’s simple physics: a longer, heavier truck is more difficult to control and when involved in a crash, causes more devastation.

We need to stop Capitol Hill lobbyists from making both our highways and our environment more dangerous for our families.