EPA issues new auto rules aimed at cutting carbon emissions, boosting electric vehicles and hybrids

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration on Wednesday announced new auto emissions standards that officials called the most ambitious plan yet to reduce global-warming emissions from passenger vehicles.

The new rules relax initial exhaust limits proposed last year, but ultimately approach the same strict standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency.

The rules come as sales of electric vehicles, which are needed to meet standards, are starting to slow. The auto industry cited lower sales growth in objecting to the EPA’s preferred standards unveiled last April as part of its ambitious plan to reduce global-warming emissions from passenger cars.

The EPA said the industry could meet the limits under its final rule if 56% of new vehicle sales were electric by 2032, along with at least 13% plug-in hybrids or other partially electric cars, as well as more efficient gasoline cars. powered cars that get more miles per gallon.

The new standards will avoid more than seven billion metric tons of planet-warming carbon emissions over the next three decades and deliver nearly $100 billion in annual net benefits, the EPA said, including lower health care costs, fewer deaths and more than $60 billion in savings. annual costs for fuel, maintenance and repairs.

The EPA rule applies to model years 2027 through 2032 and will significantly reduce planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions as well as other air pollution such as nitrogen oxides and particulate matter from new passenger cars, light trucks and pickups. The rule will help “address the climate crisis” and result in widespread reductions in air pollution while accelerating the adoption of cleaner vehicle technologies, the EPA said. The agency is finalizing the rule as sales of clean vehicles, including plug-in hybrid and fully electric vehicles, reached record highs last year.

The new rule delays the implementation of stricter pollution standards from 2027 to 2029, after the auto industry called the proposed benchmarks unworkable. The rule will be expanded to nearly the level EPA prefers by 2032.

“Let me be clear: Our final rule will achieve the same, if not more, pollution reductions than we set out in our proposal,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan told reporters. In addition to carbon pollution, the final standards will also reduce other serious air pollution that contributes to heart attacks, respiratory diseases, worsened asthma and reduced lung function, Regan said.

“Folks, these new standards are so important for public health, for American jobs, for our economy and for our planet,” he said.

The standards are designed to be technology neutral and performance-oriented, Regan said, giving car and truck manufacturers the flexibility to choose pollution control technologies that are best suited to their customers while meeting environmental and public health goals.

The changes appear aimed at addressing strong industry resistance to the accelerated ramp-up of electric vehicles, along with public reluctance to fully embrace the new technology. There is also a legitimate threat of legal challenges to conservative courts.

The Supreme Court, with a 6-3 conservative majority, has increasingly curbed the powers of federal agencies, including the EPA, in recent years. The justices have limited the EPA’s authority to combat air and water pollution — including a landmark 2022 ruling that limited the EPA’s authority to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from power plants that contribute to global warming.

President Joe Biden has made the fight against climate change a hallmark of his presidency as he seeks to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from gasoline vehicles, which are the largest source of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.

At the same time, the Democratic president needs cooperation from the auto industry and political support from auto workers, a key political voting bloc. The United Auto Workers union, which has endorsed Biden, has said it supports the transition to electric vehicles but wants to ensure that jobs are preserved and that the industry pays the highest wages to workers who build the electric vehicles and batteries.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Tuesday that White House officials “have no concerns” about the final EPA rule. “We know this kind of thing takes time,” she told reporters. “But we remain committed to our (climate) goals.”

Overall, environmental groups are optimistic about the new EPA plan, which aims to reduce emissions from a source that produces a fifth of the nation’s carbon pollution.

“Over time, these rules will prevent more carbon pollution than the entire U.S. economy coughs up in a year,” said Manish Bapna, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council. In the short term, the rules will “save drivers money at the pump and reduce tailpipe pollution that endangers public health,” he added.

“On the longer journey to tackle the climate crisis, these standards move us in the right direction,” he said.

“This is a day to celebrate America’s achievements,” said Amanda Leland, executive director of the Environmental Defense Fund, another environmental group. The new EPA rule “will reduce climate and air pollution…and deliver more jobs for workers, more choices and more savings for consumers, and a healthier future for our children.”

But Dan Becker of the Center for Biological Diversity said he fears loopholes in the law will allow the industry to continue selling gas burners. He also worries that the industry will do little in the first three years of the standards, which could be reversed if former President Donald Trump is re-elected.

“The bottom line is that the government is giving in to pressure from big oil, big car companies and dealers to slow progress on electric cars and now allow more pollution from cars,” Becker said.

At a rally in the Detroit area in September, Trump emphasized that Biden’s embrace of electric vehicles — a key part of his clean energy agenda — would ultimately lead to job losses.

“He’s selling you to China, he’s selling you to the environmental extremists and the radical left,” Trump told his crowd, flanked by American flags and pallets of car parts.

Republicans and some in the industry have called the rule an EV mandate, but Regan and White House officials have pushed back on that.

“You know, maybe some would like it to be an EV mandate, but that’s clearly not the case when you look at the different ways companies can choose to comply with the rule,” Regan said. “We remain well within the limits of the law and our legal authority by not mandating any specific technology.”

The EPA could meet its carbon pollution goals even if battery-electric vehicle sales reach just 30% by 2032, as long as other standards are met, he said.

US electric vehicle sales grew 47% last year to a record 1.19 million, while electric vehicle market share rose to 7.6% from 5.8% in 2022. But EV sales growth slowed toward the end of the year. In December they rose by 34%.

The Alliance for Auto Innovation, a major industry trade group, praised the EPA’s slower implementation of the standards and said the pace of the EV transition matters as the industry produces more electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids to drive more converting travel kilometers into electricity. . The group had complained that the EPA’s initial proposed increase to 67% was too fast for the industry to achieve. The proposal outpaced Biden’s goal of ensuring electric vehicles will make up half of new vehicles in the US by 2030.

“Moderating the pace of electric vehicle adoption (from 2027 through 2030) was the right thing to do because it prioritizes more reasonable electrification goals over the next few, very critical years of the transition,” said John Bozzella, the CEO of the Alliance.

The adjusted emissions targets will still be a challenge for the industry, Bozzella said, but they should give the market and parts supply chains a chance to catch up on higher EV sales. The plan also gives the industry more time to set up public charging stations and allows for government tax incentives for electric vehicle production and for consumers to buy electric vehicles, he said.

Toyota, the top seller of hybrid vehicles in the U.S., said it believes the fastest way to quickly reduce carbon emissions is to give consumers a choice between battery-electric vehicles and hybrids. The new EPA standards will increase sales of plug-in hybrids and regular gas-electric hybrids to meet emissions limits.

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AP Auto Writer Tom Krisher reported from Detroit.