Seventeen states are suing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to keep the greenhouse gas emission standards for model year 2022-2025 vehicles. The standards save drivers money at the pump, reduce oil consumption, and curb greenhouse gases, said New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman.
The federal standards would reduce carbon pollution by 1.8 billion metric tons and save consumers $1,650 per vehicle. The car industry is already on track to meet or exceed these standards, he said.
“These emission standards are common sense – protecting our air and mitigating our contributions to climate change, all while saving drivers money at the pump,” said Schneiderman. “Yet the Trump administration conducted a phony study, ignoring the facts and the law in order to cook the books on these critical standards.”
The lawsuit was filed by the states of California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and the District of Columbia.
In 2012, the EPA and National Highway Safety and Transportation Administration adopted national standards for greenhouse gas emissions and fuel economy for cars to be sold in 2017-2025. Because of the standards’ long time span, the EPA agreed to a midterm review for 2022-2025 to make sure the standards were still appropriate.
Based on research, input from stakeholders, and published literature and studies, the EPA concluded in January 2017 that the 2022-25 standards are reasonable, will achieve significant carbon dioxide emissions reductions, and will provide significant economic and environmental benefits to consumers.
However, last month, the EPA – without evidence to support the decision – reversed the decision and scrapped the greenhouse gas emissions standards for model years 2022-2025 vehicles. It limited any analysis to rulemaking designed to try to weaken the existing 2022-2025 standards.
Last week, Schneiderman obtained a federal court order blocking the Trump administration from delaying a rule that updates penalties assessed to automakers for not meeting the Corporate Average Fuel Economy or CAFE standards – which are also key to reducing greenhouse gas emissions from cars.
The CAFE standards are important in light of the Ford Motor Company’s decision to no longer produce sedans, but make only SUVs, crossovers, and pickups.
“Not only are gas prices already rising and consumers, themselves, desirous of the fuel efficiency standards, but vehicles with higher fuel economy sell better than those with lower MPGs,” said Jack Gillis, the Consumer Federation of America’s director of public affairs and author of “The Car Book.” “The most immediate impact of the Trump/Pruitt fuel efficiency roll back would be on already hard-hit household budgets at a time when gas prices on their way back up again.”
An analysis of all SUV’s, crossovers, and light trucks produced in 2017, which were also available in 2011, shows that vehicles which increased their fuel economy by 15 percent or more over the last six years, when the fuel economy standards first started, saw far greater increases in sales, more than double, when compared to vehicles which increased their fuel economy by less than 15 percent. While consumers are increasingly buying larger vehicles, they're doing so in part because of the money saving increases in fuel efficiency.
“The bottom-line, with Ford’s decision to abandon more fuel efficient vehicles and with gas prices rising, consumer pocketbooks desperately need the financial protection offered by the current, achievable, and sensible fuel efficiency standard,” said Gillis.
