The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Transportation (DOT) are expected to finalize new fuel economy and greenhouse gas tailpipe standards at the end of March in the next few days. Once finalized, the standards will amount to the biggest increase in fuel economy in more than 30 years and set the first-ever national vehicle standards for the heat-trapping pollutants that cause climate change.
The twin standards are the result of an agreement President Obama brokered among states, automakers and the two federal agencies last year. Under the new national program, the EPA will regulate vehicle heat-trapping emissions, including carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and air conditioning system pollutants, under the Clean Air Act. The DOT’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), meanwhile, will regulate fuel economy, as it has since 1975.
Because heat-trapping emissions from vehicles are directly related to fuel consumption, the two agencies are working together to set their respective standards. While each agency is responsible for overseeing its own set of standards, the stringencies of both standards will be harmonized for automakers.
Under current law, fuel economy standards must be finalized at least 18 months prior to the first model year they will affect, which would mean the agencies must release the final standards by Thursday, April 1. Automakers at the show will be promoting hybrid, electric and other advanced and conventional technologies designed to meet growing consumer demand for fuel-efficient cars and light trucks.
The new standards underscore the Clean Air Act’s effectiveness in reducing carbon pollution, even as states and industry groups attack EPA’s authority to do so. Besides cutting heat-trapping emissions, the new standards will dramatically curb oil consumption and save consumers billions of dollars at the pump.
A draft rule released last fall indicated the agencies will boost the average fleetwide fuel economy of new vehicles sold in the United States to 34.1 miles per gallon by model year 2016. The standards also would set the first national global warming pollution tailpipe standards for vehicles at 250 grams per mile, nearly 30% less than the emissions produced by today’s average new vehicle.
According to an analysis by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), such standards would:
- reduce U.S. oil consumption by approximately 1.3 million barrels per day by 2020, nearly as much as the United States currently imports from Saudi Arabia
- cut global warming emissions by 217 million metric tons in 2020, the equivalent of taking nearly 32 million of today’s cars and light trucks off the road that year
- save drivers $26 billion in 2020 (based on a gas price of $2.25 per gallon), even after they pay the cost of vehicle technology improvements. (If gas prices spike to $4 a gallon again, the new standards would save drivers $60 billion in 2020.)
UCS said its experts will be watching to see how the agencies resolve questions about emissions from electric vehicles. Electric vehicles do not produce tailpipe emissions directly, but some of the electricity that will power them likely will be generated by coal-fired power plants or other polluting energy sources.
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