The EPA wants to roll back regulations on car makers. Here's what that means for the auto industry
The Environmental Protection Agency is considering a rollback of emissions regulations and fuel economy standards put in place during the Obama Administration, the New York Times reported Thursday.
Measures requiring auto makers to achieve an average fleet fuel efficiency of 50 miles per gallon by 2025 were created to reduce emissions that cause climate change, but car companies have protested them for years.
In late February 2017, the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, which represents General Motors, Toyota, Volkswagen, and nine other automakers, sent a letter to EPA head Scott Pruitt calling the fuel efficiency rules “the product of egregious procedural and substantive defects” that are “riddled with indefensible assumptions, inadequate analysis and a failure to engage with contrary evidence.”
In March 2017, the Trump Administration ordered a review of the Obama-era regulations.
Pruitt has already submitted a 16-page plan to the White House for approval, according to an EPA spokeswoman. He is expected to frame the deregulation as a move that will make larger vehicles, like trucks, vans, and sport utility vehicles, more affordable, say people familiar with the plan.
This poses a solution to a problem that doesn’t seem to exist, since trucks and SUVs are routinely top-selling vehicles in the U.S., with the mid-size SUVs and pickup trucks accounting for 55% of all vehicle sales in 2017, according to Kelly Blue Book. The Ford F-series was the best-selling vehicle in the world last year, and has been the top-seller in the U.S. for more than 30 years.
It’s a move that could actually damage the auto industry.
“Rolling back fuel-efficiency and emissions targets would make zero sense economically for anyone but oil companies,” says David Richardson, the executive director of business development at Impax Asset Management. “In fact, it would set back American car companies and those working for them because the global automotive market is moving the opposite direction, away from gas guzzlers and toward cleaner, more efficient cars and associated technology.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/the-epa-wants-to-roll-back-regulations-on-car-makers-heres-what-that-means-for-the-auto-industry/ar-AAviki6?li=BBnbfcN
Who's Scott Pruitt a lackey for?
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