Transportation

EPA to Reconsider Evaluation of Vehicle GHG Emissions

The midterm evaluation (MTE) of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions limits for cars and light-duty trucks, which President Obama’s EPA released 16 months before the deadline for doing so, will be reconsidered by President Trump’s EPA. The reconsideration is needed, the EPA now says, because the MTE was not developed in consideration of a second MTE of Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards due from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) but not yet completed.

Based on ‘Most Current Information’

The MTE was an element in EPA’s 2012 final rule establishing vehicle GHG standards for model year (MY) 2017–2025 vehicles. The intent of the MTE was to determine if the 2022–2025 GHG limits remained appropriate. In the rule, the Agency said it would provide the MTE no later than April 1, 2018. But the Agency decided to release the final MTE in January 2017, after the close of a 30-day public comment period and only 21/2 months after publication of the draft MTE. The release was clearly timed to precede Trump’s occupation of the White House.

In the final MTE, the Agency stated that the rule’s 2022–2025 standards remain appropriate under every major criterion, including technologies available to automakers, reduced GHG emissions, other health and environmental benefits, cost to manufacturers, increased fuel efficiency, and vehicle price. According to the EPA, it received over 100,000 comments on the draft, including comments from 60 organizations, all of which “represent the most current information available, as informed by public comment, and provides the basis for the Administrator’s Final Determination.”

Auto Industry Analysis Missing

The 2012 regulations were written following consultation with U.S. automakers that generally agreed that the GHG/CAFE requirements could be achieved without excessive economic damage. But after the MTE was released, 12 of the nation’s largest automakers asked the Trump administration to withdraw the MTE. In a letter to the EPA, the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers said early release of the MTE precluded the Agency’s consideration of industry’s analysis of the draft document, which was still ongoing according to the original schedule. In its letter, the Alliance said it supported development of the MTE and related EPA actions provided the Agency followed through on its commitment to reassess the standards as data became available to test their feasibility. But with the early issuance of the MTE, the EPA “abruptly abrogated these commitments,” wrote the Alliance.

Maximum Feasible CAFE Standards

In its notice of reconsideration, the EPA now says the final MTE was not developed in coordination with NHTSA’s MTE for CAFE standards, which the Agency had committed to doing in the 2012 rule.

“Given that CO2 [carbon dioxide] makes up the vast majority of the GHGs that EPA regulates under [Clean Air Act (CAA)] section 202(a), and given that the technologies available for regulating CO2 emissions do so by improving fuel economy (which NHTSA regulates under [the Energy Policy and Conservation Act as amended by the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007]), NHTSA’s views with regard to what CAFE standards would be maximum feasible for those model years are an appropriate consideration in EPA’s determining what GHG standards would be appropriate under the CAA,” states the EPA in its notice. “However, NHTSA has not yet considered what CAFE standards are maximum feasible standards for MY 2022–2025. Accordingly, EPA has concluded that it is appropriate to reconsider its Final Determination in order to allow additional consultation and coordination with NHTSA in support of a national harmonized program.”

The notice of consideration was published in the March 22, 2017, FR.

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