UPDATED: 4/2/18 3:22 pm ET - adds details, reactions
WASHINGTON -- The Trump administration, in a widely expected move, announced that fuel-efficiency regulations for cars and light trucks are too stringent and must be revised, formally beginning a process sought by the U.S. auto industry to roll back anti-pollution targets.
The EPA also said it was considering whether to revoke the waiver that allows California to set its own emissions requirements that exceed the federal standards.
The greenhouse gas emission standards that were a signature element of President Barack Obama’s climate-change policy are too aggressive, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt said in a statement Monday outlining the decision.
“The Obama EPA’s determination was wrong,” Pruitt said in a news release. “Obama’s EPA cut the midterm evaluation process short with politically charged expediency, made assumptions about the standards that didn’t comport with reality and set the standards too high.”
Pruitt’s so-called final determination, announced by the agency on Monday, is a step needed to dial back the Obama-era rules, which aimed to slash carbon emissions from cars and light trucks by boosting fuel economy to a fleet average of more than 50 miles per gallon by 2025. That standard is equivalent to roughly 36 mpg in real-world driving.
In the statement, Pruitt said the agency would begin drafting fresh auto standards for 2022-2025 alongside the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The action drew criticism from consumer and environmental groups ahead of its release. It dovetails with other steps to unwind actions aimed at combating climate change, such as President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris climate accord and the EPA’s repeal of a rule slashing carbon emissions from power plants.
“EPA’s decision defies the robust record and years of review that show these targets are reasonable and appropriate,” David Friedman, director of cars and products policy and analysis for Consumers Union, the advocacy division of Consumer Reports, said in a statement. “Undermining these consumer protections will cost consumers more at the pump while fulfilling the wishes of the auto industry.”
“With his auto company partners, Trump is dismantling the biggest single step any nation has taken to fight global warming and save oil,” Dan Becker, director of the Safe Climate Campaign, in a statement last week.
The EPA’s announcement echoed criticisms expressed by automakers, saying the Obama Administration short-circuited the process and rushed out their final determination just days before leaving office.
“This was the right decision, and we support the administration for pursuing a data-driven effort and a single national program as it works to finalize future standards," the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers said in a statement. "We appreciate that the administration is working to find a way to both increase fuel economy standards and keep new vehicles affordable to more Americans.”
Ford under fire
Greenpeace USA on Monday released a video lampooning Ford Motor Co., and urging it to distance itself from the Alliance, the trade group that has been most vocal in pushing the administration to revisit the standards. The satirical ad shows children donning gas masks as they disembark from a Ford SUV into the polluted air.
Environmental groups and other proponents of the Obama administration’s fuel-economy program had looked to Ford to defend the current standards, given Executive Chairman Bill Ford’s support for the original program and his years advocacy on environmental issues.
“Instead of trying to rewrite the rules in their own favor, companies like Ford, that have promised to fight climate change and build smart cities, need to make good on their promises,” Greenpeace said in a statement last week.
California conflicts
The decision also puts the Trump administration’s tenuous relationship with California officials on an even rockier path. The state has its own car and truck efficiency standards aligned with the Obama-era targets, made through an agreement reached in 2011 with the support of nearly all major automakers.
"The California waiver is still being reexamined by EPA under Administrator Pruitt’s leadership," the agency said. California has been writing its own clean-air rules since 1970, as part of the state’s bid to crack down on smog.
California officials have vowed to resist a Trump-led rollback of the federal targets.
Without an agreement between Washington and Sacramento, easing the federal standards could lead to a messy legal battle, a patchwork of efficiency standards, or both. The friction has broader implications for carmakers because California’s rules are followed by 12 other states that collectively account for about a third of U.S. auto sales.
Automotive News contributed to this report.
You can reach Ryan Beene at autonews@crain.com
