Fuel Efficiency Standards

 

General Coverage

 

GM, Ford, Fiat Chrysler Differ On Goals For Tailpipe Standards. According to Bloomberg , “General Motors Co. reiterated its call for a 50-state zero-emission vehicle requirement modeled after California’s. But automaker also urged California to compromise. The new rules ‘should not require high-cost investment in marginal internal combustion engine improvements that customers are not willing to pay for and that divert resources from the further development of electrification,’ the automaker said. … Ford Motor Co. urged the administration to drop the idea, contained in some of the scenarios in its proposed rules, of requiring fuel economy standards to increase at a faster rate for trucks than for passenger cars. Ford also urged that all two-wheel-drive sports utility vehicles be counted as trucks, not cars. … Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV urged talks with California but said that if the talks fail, Trump should proceed with his plan to revoke the state’s authority to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from tailpipes and to mandate electric car sales. Even with heavy incentives from governments and automakers, hybrid and zero-emission vehicle sales account for 3.3 percent of the U.S. market. That’s down from 3.7 percent in 2013. Honda Motor Co. called on Trump to negotiate with California instead of revoking the state’s rule-making authority. Honda said key elements of the administration’s claim that rollback would improve traffic safety are flawed and should be scrapped. Shell Oil Products U.S. asked the administration to reconsider its crackdown on California. ‘The proposed revocation of the California waiver has already resulted in litigation and is likely to result in extended uncertainty that will hinder efforts to reduce emissions,’ Shell said.” [Bloomberg, 10/29/18 (=)]

 

Environmentalists Boost Technical, Legal Attacks On Vehicle GHG Plan. According to Inside EPA, “Environmentalists and other critics of the Trump administration’s plan to freeze vehicle greenhouse gas and fuel economy standards are floating a bevy of attacks on its legal and technical foundation as a prelude to likely litigation, including arguments that the plan significantly under-counts air pollution increases and associated adverse effects. The groups in formal comments also include a somewhat under-the-radar, but nonetheless harsh, criticism that the rollback proposal overestimates the fuel efficiency improvements that would occur without any rules, thus understating the benefits of the current, Obama-era standards. The criticisms underscore the strong resistance the Trump plan is garnering from defenders of the existing limits. These groups argue they -- and not the Trump administration -- have an upper hand in the regulatory fight over the plan and a likely future court battle, given a lengthy administrative record backing the current requirements and an array of alleged flaws and omissions in the administration’s supporting analysis. EPA and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) ‘have grossly underestimated the impact of their proposed rollback of the standards on GHG emissions and . . . mistakenly concluded that the non-GHG emissions and associated health impacts are negligible,’ Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) says in Oct. 26 comments.” [Inside EPA, 10/30/18 (=)]

 

Opinion Pieces

 

Editorial: Editorial: Even GM Wants Cleaner Cars Than Trump. According to San Francisco Chronicle, “Perhaps sensing that President Trump might not read all 415 pages of California’s official response to his administration’s proposed fuel efficiency retreat, Gov. Jerry Brown tried last week to put it in the sort of simple terms the president prefers. ‘Bad,’ he said, ‘to put it in the vernacular.’ But the barriers, linguistic and otherwise, between the Brown and Trump administrations won’t be easily breached. The latter has proposed freezing vehicle efficiency standards set to rise through 2026 and challenged California’s authority to set stricter rules and require more electric cars, suggesting we may as well resign ourselves to temperatures rising 7 degrees Fahrenheit by century’s end. California officials called that a ‘nihilistic and fatalistic’ embrace of a future in which ‘human civilization as it currently exists is impossible.’ This argument, in other words, could go on for a while — which is the problem, as General Motors sees it. While automakers initially urged Trump to soften the heightened fuel economy standards set under President Barack Obama, some now fear he went too far. The standoff between Sacramento and Washington, along with the possibility of separate national and state standards, creates uncertainty for manufacturers. Excessively lax standards would also put the U.S. industry out of step with the rest of the world.” [San Francisco Chronicle, 10/29/18 (+)]

Other News

 

Even The World's Biggest Miners Are Switching To Electric Vehicles. According to Bloomberg, “BHP Billiton Ltd.’s giant Olympic Dam mine in Australia’s Outback is a labyrinth of 450 kilometers of tunnels and roads -- an ideal testing ground for the industry’s burgeoning shift toward cleaner power. Taking about 30 minutes to drive from top to bottom, there’s ample opportunity for the world’s biggest miner to test electric SUVs in a bid to cut both costs and pollution, including potentially harmful diesel emissions. BHP will make a decision by the middle of next year whether to extend the program across a 240-strong fleet of light vehicles at the South Australia operation. ‘Getting mines to be completely diesel free is our end goal,’ said Andrew Draffin, a project manager at Voltra, a supplier that’s provided BHP with adapted Toyota LandCruiser models fitted with an electric motor and lithium-ion batteries. ‘We’ve started with light vehicles because that’s the easiest for companies to prove the electric concept.’ While less than 1 percent of vehicles used in mining are currently battery-powered, the change is likely to be rapid and see the majority of trucks and loaders replaced with electric equipment over the next seven to 10 years, according to Epiroc AB, a Swedish manufacturer and supplier to the mining industry. … BHP’s tests are aimed at demonstrating if the use of EVs at mines can help lower greenhouse gas emissions, trim operating costs and boost a wider program to address risks to employees’ health from exposure to diesel particulate matter.” [Bloomberg, 10/29/18 (=)] 

 

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