Stakeholders support EPA’s new proposed vehicle emissions standards
The Edison Electric Institute (EEI), the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE), and the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) have voiced support for the tailpipe pollution limits proposed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The proposed emissions standards released on April 12 for both new passenger cars and trucks, and for new urban delivery and freight trucks and buses, aim to give Americans cleaner air and a safer climate, while creating jobs and saving people money, said organization leaders on Wednesday.
“EEI and our member companies commend EPA for proposing new rules to help reduce emissions from passenger and other light-duty vehicles,” said Tom Kuhn, president of EEI, which represents the nation’s investor-owned utilities.
“Our industry has fully embraced a strategy that will deliver resilient clean energy to the customers and communities that we serve,” Kuhn added. “Electrifying the transportation sector will be key to reducing emissions across the economy and to achieving our goals for a carbon-free future.”
EEI members, Kuhn said in his statement, are committed to working with EPA Administrator Michael Regan and the Biden administration to help build the electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure that’s needed to accelerate the electric transportation transition and reduce vehicle emissions.
Since President Joe Biden took office, the number of EV sales has tripled while the number of available models has doubled, according to the EPA, which says there are over 130,000 public chargers across the country, a 40 percent increase over 2020.
The private sector also has committed more than $120 billion in domestic EV and battery investments since President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law, the agency says.
“These ambitious standards are readily achievable thanks to President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, which is already driving historic progress to build more American-made electric cars and secure America’s global competitiveness,” said EPA Administrator Michael Regan.
Shruti Vaidyanathan, transportation program director at ACEEE, acknowledged that the Biden administration has taken a major step toward tackling pollution from transportation and pointed out that there’s room to go further regarding EVs.
“These proposed standards will help fight climate change, cut fueling costs, and reduce smog-forming pollution,” said Vaidyanathan. “But these standards should be strengthened to help achieve the president’s economy-wide climate goals.”
While they are strong proposals, he said they do not give Americans as much progress as climate circumstances demand.
“We need to move to electrified vehicles as rapidly as possible while continuing to reduce emissions from conventional vehicles, and these proposals need to be improved to get us there,” said Vaidyanathan.
The EPA’s strongest proposed option for cars would take the nation to more than half of new vehicles being electric by 2030, exceeding the president’s commitments, he explained.
“But recently expanded incentives for [EVs] make greater ambition possible, and the agency should consider targeting two-thirds electric sales by the end of the decade in its final rule,” Vaidyanathan suggested.
In addition, the EPA should ensure its final standards encourage EVs to be more efficient by accounting for emissions from power plants that help fuel them, he said.
And for trucks, Vaidyanathan said the EPA’s strongest proposed option would place the nation on a path to more than half of new sales being electric by 2035, yet it requires little progress on emissions from diesel trucks.
“Improving diesel truck efficiency will be crucial for reducing emissions, particularly from long-haul tractors — by far the biggest consumers of fuel and likely the last to electrify,” said Vaidyanathan. “Significant continued improvements to diesel trucks should be required in the final rule.”
Overall benefits cited
Specifically, the EPA’s newly proposed emissions standards for light-, medium-, and heavy-duty vehicles for model year 2027 and beyond would reduce climate and other harmful air pollution, and would lower maintenance costs while delivering fuel savings for drivers and truck operators, according to the agency’s summary of the standards.
For example, through 2055, EPA projects that the proposed standards would avoid nearly 10 billion tons of CO2 emissions — equivalent to more than twice the total U.S. CO2 emissions in 2022 — by accelerating the adoption of technologies that reduce fuel and maintenance costs.
Additionally, the proposed standards would save the average consumer $12,000 over the lifetime of a light-duty vehicle, as compared to a vehicle that was not subject to the new standards, the summary says.
“The EPA clean air proposals… will slash billions of tons of climate pollution, along with health-harming pollution that causes thousands of premature deaths annually,” EDF President Fred Krupp said in a statement. “With these clean air standards, EPA estimates that in 2032 about two-thirds of the new cars and passenger trucks sold in America will be tailpipe pollution free, and EPA’s proposal will ensure that up to half of new urban delivery and freight vehicles sold by 2032 will be zero-emitting.”
Krupp added that combined with the incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act, the EPA’s proposals would drive more investment in both the manufacturing of and new charging infrastructure for zero-emitting vehicles.
“They will provide important financial savings for American families, whether they are buying new or used zero-emitting cars — thousands of dollars in lifetime fuel cost savings together with up to $7,500 in consumer clean vehicle tax credits under the Inflation Reduction Act,” he said. “They’ll also allow truckers to see substantial fuel cost savings beyond the $40,000 clean commercial vehicle tax credit under the Inflation Reduction Act.”
At the same time, the EPA says its proposals would reduce oil imports by roughly 20 billion barrels, according to its summary, and overall, the agency estimates that the benefits of the proposed standards would exceed costs by at least $1 trillion.
“EPA has launched us on a critically important journey to a clean transportation future,” said Krupp.
The EPA plans to hold a virtual public hearing for the proposed rule, “Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standards for Heavy-Duty Engines and Vehicles-Phase 3,” on May 2 and 3, with an additional session scheduled for May 4, depending on the number of people who sign up to testify.
Likewise, the EPA will hold a virtual public hearing for the proposed “Multi-Pollutant Emissions Standards for Model Years 2027 and Later Light-Duty and Medium-Duty Vehicles” rule on May 9 and 10, with an additional session scheduled for May 11 to accommodate a large number of testifiers.
Written comments must be received 60 days after both proposed rules are published in the Federal Register.
