USTMA lays out 2024 policy push in letter to Congress

WASHINGTON—The U.S. Tire Manufacturers Association (USTMA) laid out its 2024 legislative agenda in a letter to Congressional leadership Feb. 15, advocating for policies that enhance road safety, tire innovation, environmental stewardship and domestic jobs in manufacturing.

"Tires support almost every facet of our mobile society, and the members of USTMA urge Congress to promptly address several high-priority issues,"Anne Forristall Luke, USTMA president and CEO, wrote in the letter.

"Technological advancements in mobility and complex environmental challenges are advancing at rapid rates, and federal action is needed to ensure that laws and regulations keep pace with the needs of both the industry and consumers.

"We reaffirm our commitment to work with Congress and the Biden Administration to advance the important solutions laid out in our Congressional correspondence."

The USTMA identified six policy areas in the letter:

New rules from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) for consumer tire information and performance standards, and the modernization of tire testing regulations are long overdue, the USTMA said.

The group called on Congress to urge NHTSA to modernize safety standards because it will "allow for adoption of more innovative technologies, enhance the performance of tires available in the U.S. market and give U.S. consumers access to higher performing tires already available in other markets," Forristall Luke wrote.

"In 2007, our trade association worked closely with Congress on language in the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) that would establish a national tire-fuel-efficiency consumer information program to educate consumers about the effect of tires on automobile fuel efficiency, traction and durability. Our organization also engaged with Congress on the Fixing America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Act of 2015 to include the promulgation of regulations for tire fuel efficiency and wet traction minimum performance standards.

"However, after almost 17 years since EISA was signed into law and nine years since the passage of the FAST Act, NHTSA has not acted on either of the Congressional mandates."

The USTMA said the lack of a federal framework has resulted in states' drafting "their own tire performance proposals that threaten to eliminate the vast majority of tires on the market today from being sold in-state in the future."

The USTMA also seeks to have NHTSA eliminate the bead-unseating and plunger-energy tests from the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards.

"These tests were designed over 60 years ago for bias-ply tires and do not deliver a safety benefit for today's modern radial tires."

The USTMA wants to expand circular solutions for scrap tires, specifically use of rubber-modified asphalt (RMA) in infrastructure projects and research into tire-derived aggregate (TDA).

More than 250 million scrap tires are generated in the U.S. each year, according to the USTMA.

"While tires remain one of the most recycled products in the country, ensuring end-use markets continue to grow to consume annually generated scrap tires is essential to preventing tire stockpiles and illegal dumping," Forristall Luke wrote.

The group urged Congress to recognize the viability of RMA and identify it as a preferred pavement material for federal projects. RMA is a mixture of recycled ground tire rubber and asphalt.

"The USTMA recognizes rubber-modified asphalt and tire-derived aggregate have the greatest potential for market growth given the historic investments made by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Investment Reduction Act," USTMA said.

USTMA also urged Congress to fund research for TDA in federal, state and local construction projects.

"TDA (large shreds of scrap tires) can be used as cost-effective infill material for roadside embankments, retaining walls and stormwater infiltration galleries. The use of TDA realizes significant benefits, including reducing costs compared to traditional mined construction materials and improved drainage in stormwater infiltration galleries," Forristall Luke wrote.

The USTMA urged Congress to fund solutions for keeping contaminates from road-water runoff from reaching bodies of water.

"We also support the deployment of existing technologies that filter pollutants before they enter waterways, including the use of stormwater bioretention technologies, use of permeable pavements and increased street sweeping in urban areas," Forristall Luke wrote.

"Rebuilding America's roadways should be done with the future in mind to increase driver safety and ensure reductions in environmental impacts, including mitigation for roadway runoff."

The USTMA said the use of retreaded tires for commercial vehicles enhances sustainability and grows jobs. It asked Congress to provide incentives for domestic tire retreading.

Forristall Luke said there are many notable reasons to support retreading.

"In addition to job creation, retreading reduces energy consumption, CO2 emissions, raw material usage and tire disposal challenges," Forristall Luke said. "Despite these advantages, retreading of commercial tires has steadily decreased over the last 25 years."

The USTMA noted incentives could be a "per-tire manufacturing grant" to retreaders or as a tax credit to buyers of domestically retreaded tires.

USTMA urged Congress to support funding to develop domestic sources of sustainable natural rubber, including guayule and TKS (dandelion).

"Natural rubber is used in all tires and provides needed performance and durability qualities that can only be achieved through its use. For example, commercial and military aircraft tire treads and heavy-duty truck and bus tread are made almost completely from natural rubber because of unique properties that synthetic rubber does not offer.

"With 90% of natural rubber supply coming from southeast Asia, any supply-chain interruptions may have serious repercussions for the U.S. tire market, potentially restricting production of truck, aircraft and military vehicles and aircraft tires," Forristall Luke said.

The USTMA added that the development of the domestic natural rubber industry should include:

• Economic support for farmers to incentivize needed investments to adapt planting rubber-producing crops as part of the normal agricultural economy;
• Economic support to scale commercial processing facilities to extract the rubber and other high value co-products from guayule and TKS; and
• Funding for research to further develop domestic sources of natural rubber.

The USTMA said it supports "equal and standardized access to digital vehicle and infrastructure assets."

"The future of mobility is changing rapidly with major innovations in advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), autonomous driving, vehicle electrification and vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure connectivity," Forristall Luke wrote.

"Information generated by the tire and paired with vehicle data can be leveraged to link information about the road and the vehicle to provide key information to the driver around fuel efficiency, tire maintenance and monitoring road and weather conditions."

The letter was sent Feb. 15 to House Speaker Rep. Mike Johnson, House Democratic leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, Senate majority leader Charles Schumer and Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell.

USTMA ambassadors from its 12 member companies will visit Capitol Hill later this year to engage with Congressional offices on these industry priorities and the promotion of National Tire Safety Week.