The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, which comprises 12 of the nation’s largest carmakers, is requesting that the EPA withdraw its final midterm evaluation (MTE) of the Agency’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions standards for model year (MY) 2022–2025 cars and light-duty trucks. The Alliance’s main objection is that the EPA rushed the publication of the final MTE 16 months before it was scheduled to do so, thereby bypassing consideration of analysis that the industry has not completed because it is ongoing according to the original schedule.
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In the MTE, the Agency stated that the 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.
While the EPA did not so state, release of the MTE while President Obama was still in office was clearly intended to avoid the prospect of the document being shelved by the incoming Trump administration.
Early Release Not Prohibited
In its 2012 final regulations establishing vehicle GHG standards for MY 2017–2025, the Agency announced its intention to provide the MTE no later than April 1, 2018. However, the Agency stated that the rules did not constrain the EPA from selecting an earlier determination date. Release of the final MTE follows publication of the draft MTE by only 21/2 months. Moreover, the Agency provided the public only 30 days to submit comments on the draft, which, according to the Alliance, consisted of nearly 1,000 pages of documents, plus additional cited documents and computer modeling “regarding requirements that will profoundly affect the automobile industry and the more than 900,000 American workers it directly employs.”
The EPA had committed to writing the MTE in cooperation with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which is responsible for setting national vehicle fuel economy standards. But the NHTSA has not yet completed its own MTE, thereby precluding the promised harmonization between the two sets of standards, says the Alliance.
History of Cooperation
Industry’s objection to the MTE is an unexpected turn in the development of GHG standards for vehicles. Automakers have worked cooperatively with the EPA in developing standards they found achievable. Furthermore, automakers agreed to the idea of an MTE even though no agency had ever set emissions standards so far into the future, and “all stakeholders understood that no one could accurately project the circumstances affecting the technological and economic feasibility of these standards.”
The Alliance now says 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,” says the Alliance.
“The Final Determination asserts that there was no need for more time because the Proposed Determination did not include much new material,” writes the Alliance. “But that contention is belied by EPA’s acknowledgement [sic] that the Proposed Determination adjusted a number of EPA assumptions in response to commenters who pointed out errors at earlier stages. The industry also had an unacceptably short period to try to ascertain why EPA rejected many of its objections.”
Consumer Acceptance
The letter also asserts that the MTE is “riddled with indefensible assumptions, inadequate analysis, and a failure to engage with contrary evidence.” Among these problems, says the Alliance, are MTE’s miscalculation of the industry’s need to rely on electrified vehicles, which will increase compliance costs, the Agency’s refusal to conduct an analysis of consumer acceptance, and a refusal by the EPA to consider many of industry’s technical concerns.
The Alliance’s letter is here.