The Environmental Protection Agency on Monday announced strengthened limits on pollution from automobile tailpipes in a bid to reduce a major source of the carbon dioxide emissions that are heating the planet.
This final action follows months of advocacy from a diverse coalition of environmental, health, faith, and consumer organizations, after years of defending the Obama-era clean car standards from the previous administration’s rollbacks, reports the Sierra Club,
The new rule is also tougher than the EPA’s August proposed rule and the Obama-era rule, making it the most significant climate action taken to date by the Biden administration.
If expressed in miles per gallon (mpg) requirements, the EPA rules would result in a fleetwide average of about 55 mpg in 2026, versus 38 mpg under the August proposal and 32 mpg under the Trump rules, according to Reuters.
“We are setting robust and rigorous standards that will aggressively reduce the pollution that is harming people and our planet – and save families money at the same time,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in a statement.
The New York Times points out that with these new requirements, the U.S. will prevent the release of 3.1 billion tons of climate-warming carbon dioxide through 2050, according to the E.P.A.
This will also result in a savings of about 360 billion gallons of gasoline from being burned, leading to a 15 percent annual reduction in the nation’s gasoline consumption by 2050. Motorists will save about $1,080 in fuel costs over the lifetime of more efficient vehicles, the agency estimated.
“We applaud the EPA for listening to the public and the climate science and acting swiftly to strengthen the federal clean car standards, our nation’s most powerful tool to slash emissions,” said Sierra Club President Ramón Cruz.
“After a year marked by climate disasters that have ravaged communities across the country, from fires and extreme heat in the west, hurricanes and record low temperatures in the Gulf, and flooding in the east, it is more evident than ever that the impacts of the climate crisis are worsening. “
“We urge the agency to get moving on the strongest possible long-term standards that rapidly accelerate the transition to zero-emission vehicles to protect the well-being of our communities by addressing the nation’s top source of pollution.”
The move comes a day after Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia delivered a potentially fatal blow to Biden’s $2 trillion social and environmental policy bill, saying it was too expensive.
About $26 billion in tax incentives to speed up the adoption of electric vehicles is now at risk, part of a larger $2.2 trillion bill, known as the Build Back Better Act. Among the bill’s provisions is a tax credit of $7,500 for purchasers of electric vehicles, plus an additional incentive of $4,500 if the vehicles are assembled by union workers.
