CTV News brought up the prickly question of EPA emission standards after the Liberal government’s announcement of its electric vehicle rebate program launched May 1 that gives buyers a $5,000 rebate to help them afford zero-emission vehicles.
It is not like the question hasn’t been asked before. In August 2018, the EPA and the US Department of Transportation released a proposal that would ramp up fuel efficiency standards for car and light-duty trucks until 2021, and then freeze them.
Included in the proposal is a section that would revoke California’s waiver allowing the state to set its own emission standards, which are actually stronger than the federal government’s rules. This move left the EPA with a lawsuit that included 13 other states besides California.
Former EPA Director Scott Pruitt said automakers faced problems meeting the standards, adding they raised “potential concerns related to automobile safety, and results in significant additional costs on consumers, especially low-income consumers,” according to the U.S. Federal Register.
Automotive News in a story in November 2018, saw this as a potential challenge to Canada if Washington went through with the changes the EPA wanted and Ottawa didn’t follow suit.
And relying on U.S. EPA emission standards certification does put Canada in a tight spot. At the present time, the authority to regulate emission standards in Canada rests with Environment and Climate Change Canada and Transport Canada.
Under the EPA emission Certificate, “every model of vehicle or engine that is certified by the US EPA and that is sold concurrently in Canada and the United States is required to meet the same emission standards in Canada as in the United States.”
Canada’s auto industry wants the government to maintain the current emission certification standards rather than create separate standards for Canada because the current requirements are critical to meeting climate change targets. The federal government is still in consultations over what to do but says it would rather follow California’s strict standards.
“Canada is looking at following the actions of California and other like-minded U.S. states as we move forward on Canada’s mid-term evaluation,” Environment and Climate Change spokesman Mark Johnson wrote in an email. “Clean cars are a key part of Canada’s climate plan to fight climate change,” he said.
The whole thing is also a political football, of sorts, and the two countries seem to be headed in opposite directions, said Global Automakers of Canada President David Adams.
“If things change in the states, then things will change here as well unless there’s some proactivity by the government in Canada to do something different,” Adams said.
But that is the whole point – Canada doesn’t need to fall into line behind everything that the U.S. does, because recently, there have been some very questionable decisions being made, and not all of them have proved to be wise decisions.
