Auto Alliance urges US EPA to withdraw Final Determination on 2025 GHG standards
23 February 2017
The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers has sent a letter to EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt requesting that the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) withdraw the Final Determination to maintain the current GHG emission standards for model year (MY) 2022-2025 light-duty vehicles.
The letter was sent days after Pruitt was confirmed by the Senate as the new EPA Administrator. It follows an earlier letter on the 2025 GHG standards that was sent by the Auto Alliance to then President-elect Donald Trump after the US presidential elections in November 2016.
It the letter, the Alliance argues that the EPA decision finalized in January 2017 “may be the single most important decision that EPA has made in recent history,” and asked that it be reversed. The Alliance—while not arguing for a rollback of standards—calls for a resumption of the original Midterm Evaluation timetable that would result in the publication of the Final Determination by April 2018.
The former EPA Administrator signed the Final Determination on January 12, 2017, but the rule has not yet been published in the Federal Register. The EPA has accelerated the process of the statutory Midterm Evaluation of the regulations and issued the Final Determination in the final days of Obama administration. According to an earlier regulatory schedule, the final determination was to be released by April 2018.
The MY 2017-2015 GHG and fuel economy standards call for significant improvements in fuel economy, on the order of 4% per year, to reach an estimated 50.8 mpg-equivalent CAFE target in MY 2025 (note that CAFE figures are not representative of fuel economy in real driving). Car manufacturers have been concerned that the 2025 targets will be challenging, especially in view of the low gasoline prices and weak demand for electric vehicles.
The Auto Alliance members include BMW Group, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, Ford Motor Company, General Motors Company, Jaguar Land Rover, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz USA, Mitsubishi Motors, Porsche, Toyota, Volkswagen Group of America and Volvo Car USA.
Source: Auto Alliance