Biden mileage rule to exceed Obama goal

WASHINGTON — In a major step against climate change, President Joe Biden is proposing a return to aggressive Obama-era vehicle mileage standards over five years, according to industry and government officials briefed on the plan. He’s then aiming for even tougher anti-pollution rules after that to forcefully reduce greenhouse gas emissions and nudge 40 percent of U.S. drivers into electric vehicles by decade’s end.

The proposed rules from the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Transportation reflect Biden’s pledge to attack climate change but also balance concerns of the auto industry, which is urging a slower transition to zero-emission electric vehicles.

The regulatory action would tighten tailpipe emissions standards rolled back under President Donald Trump. The proposed rules are expected to be released as early as next week, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the rules haven’t been finalized.

Environmental groups said Tuesday that the proposal did not go far enough.

“The world isn’t the same as it was in 2012 when President Obama signed the clean car standards,” said Katherine Garcia, acting director of Sierra Club’s Clean Transportation for All campaign. “Millions of Americans have had to swelter in heat waves, evacuate their homes in the face of onrushing wildfires, or bail out flooded homes.”

Biden has set a goal of cutting U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by at least half by 2030. The transportation sector is the single biggest U.S. contributor to climate change.

The proposed rules would begin with the 2023 car model year, applying California’s 2019 framework agreement on emissions standards reached with Ford, Volkswagen, Honda, BMW and Volvo, according to three of the officials. The California deal increases the mileage standard and cuts greenhouse gas emissions by 3.7 percent per year.

Requirements ramp up in 2025 to Obama-era levels of a 5 percent annual increase in the mileage standard and a similar cut in emissions. They then go higher than that for model year 2026, one of the people said, perhaps in the range of 6 percent or 7 percent.

Neither EPA nor the Transportation Department would comment on the proposal.

The new standards aim to go partway in meeting the call from environmental groups, which had pushed for a more immediate return to at least the Obama-era standards.

“We’re at the climate cliff, and the stakes are too high to aim low,” the Center for Biological Diversity will write in a fullpage ad in The New York Times on Wednesday, urging tough action. Dan Becker, director of the center’s Safe Climate Transportation Campaign, on Tuesday said the administration’s proposal is inadequate because it embraces two years of the California deal, which offered a number of exemptions.

In the proposed rule, the EPA is likely to make a nonbinding statement that the requirements will ramp up even faster starting in 2027, forcing the industry to sell more zero-emissions electric vehicles, the industry and government officials said. For now, the agency is seeking to ask that 40 percent of all new car sales be electric vehicles by 2030, according to one of the officials.

The Biden administration defers for now in setting post-2026 mileage requirements, setting the stage for bigger fights ahead over the level of government effort needed to combat climate change against the future of the auto industry, which currently draws most of its profits from gas-powered SUV sales.

Delaware Sen. Tom Carper, who chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, has been urging tough rules that would ban sales of new gasoline-powered passenger vehicles by 2035. He’s argued that the industry is already moving in the direction of zero-emission electric vehicles.

Under Obama, automakers were required to raise fuel economy 5 percent per year from 2021 through 2026. But under Trump, that was reduced to 1.5 percent annually.