The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced that it will maintain the current greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions standards for model years 2022 - 2025 cars and light trucks.
The EPA states that a variety of effective technologies are available to reduce GHG emissions from cars and light trucks, and that automakers are well positioned to meet the standards through model year 2025 at lower costs than predicted.
EPA Administrator, Gina McCarthy, who finalised the decision last week, said: “My decision […] rests on the technical record created by over eight years of research, hundreds of published reports including an independent review by the National Academy of Sciences, hundreds of stakeholder meetings, and multiple opportunities for the public and the industry to provide input […] At every step in the process the analysis has shown that the greenhouse gas emissions standards for cars and light trucks remain affordable and effective through 2025, and will save American drivers billions of dollars at the pump while protecting our health and the environment.”??
Gina McCarthy said that the current standards are being retained to provide regulatory certainty for the auto industry despite a technical record that suggests the standards could be made more stringent. The decision follows the Proposed Determination issued by the EPA Administrator in November 2016, and the Draft Technical Assessment Report, issued jointly by the EPA, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), and the California Air Resources Board (CARB) in July 2016. The Administrator considered the extensive public input on both these documents in reaching her final determination.
Read the article online at: https://www.hydrocarbonengineering.com/the-environment/16012017/epa-to-retain-carbon-pollution-standards-for-cars-and-light-trucks/
