EPA to reconsider strict fuel-efficiency standards for future cars, light trucks

The Washington Post

WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency plans to announce its intent to withdraw final determination on strict fuelefficiency standards for future cars and light trucks, the latest signal by President Donald Trump’s administration that it is charting a new course on climate change.

Two associations representing the world’s biggest automakers asked EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt to reconsider the standards for model years 2022 to 2025, which would require the nation’s car and light-truck fleet to average 54.5 miles per gallon by the end of that period.

While automakers struck a 2009 deal with the Obama administration to set the first-ever carbon limits on cars and trucks, many of them now say it will be difficult to achieve these targets given the lower price of gas and Americans’ preference for sport-utility vehicles. The EPA and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration agreed to review the standards when they set them five years ago, but the EPA concluded in December that no revision was necessary. It finalized the standards a week before Mr. Trump took office.

According to individuals briefed on the matter, the new administration also is considering issuing an executive order that would revoke California’s ability to set its own targets for those model years. California is the only state allowed to do so under the Clean Air Act, but other states can adopt its regulations as their own.

Margo Oge, who directed the EPA’s office of transportation and air quality from 1994 to 2012, said in an email that the agency’s recent decision to lock in the fuel-efficiency rule “was made on sound science and thousands of man hours of analysis.”

California will “vigorously participate and defend ourselves” on setting the state’s own air quality rules, said California Air Resources Board Chair Mary Nichols.

The EPA declined to comment Friday.