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CTV News
16 hours ago
- Automotive
- CTV News
Trump's EPA is targeting key vehicle pollution rules. What that means for carmakers
DETROIT — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's plan this week to relax rules aimed at cleaning up auto tailpipe emissions is the latest Trump administration move to undo incentives for automakers to go electric. As part of a larger effort to undo climate-based governmental regulations, the EPA on Tuesday said it wants to revoke the 2009 finding that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare. That would cripple the legal basis for limiting emissions from things like power plants and motor vehicles. U.S. President Donald Trump's massive tax and spending law already targets EV incentives, including the imminent removal of a credit that saves buyers up to US$7,500 on a new electric car. The tax law approved in early July also includes another provision that will hit Tesla and other EV makers in the pocketbook — repealing fines for automakers that don't meet federal fuel economy standards. Automakers can buy credits under a trading program if they don't meet the mileage standards. EV makers like Tesla, which don't rely on gasoline, earn credits that they can sell to other carmakers. The arrangement has resulted in billions of dollars in revenue for Tesla and millions for other EV makers like Rivian. That is all set to go away under the new law. Trump has also challenged federal EV charging infrastructure money and blocked California's ban of new gas-powered vehicle sales. It adds up to less pressure on automakers to continue evolving their production away from gas-burning vehicles. And that's significant because transportation — which also includes ships, trains and planes — is the sector that contributes the most to planet-warming emissions in the U.S. Push and pull on tailpipe and mileage rules Stringent tailpipe emissions and mileage rules were part of the Biden administration's pledge to clean up the nation's vehicles and reduce use of fossil fuels by incentivizing growth in EVs. EVs do not use gasoline or emit greenhouse gases. The Trump administration and the auto industry have said both rules were unreasonable for manufacturers. Automakers could meet EPA tailpipe limits with about 56 per cent of new vehicle sales being electric by 2032 — they're currently at about eight per cent — along with at least 13 per cent plug-in hybrids or other partially electric cars, and more efficient gasoline-powered cars that get more miles to the gallon. The latest mileage targets set under the Biden administration required automakers to get to an average of about 81 kilometres per gallon for light-duty vehicles by model year 2031, and about 35 miles per gallon for pickups and vans by model year 2035. But U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy pressured the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration earlier this year to reverse the rules, and has recently said Biden's inclusion of EVs in calculating them was illegal. NHTSA will likely reset or significantly weaken them. The fines that are going away Then there are the fines that automakers will no longer face for falling short on the fuel economy rules. 'With the signing of the One Big Beautiful Bill, new penalties for automakers not complying with an illegal fuel economy standard designed to push EVs will be zero,' NHTSA spokesman Sean Rushton said in a statement. Some legacy automakers have paid hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties for not meeting them. Just last year, Jeep-maker Stellantis paid US$190.7 million for model years 2019 and 2020, and General Motors paid US$128.2 million for the 2016 and 2017 model years. Automakers that didn't meet the standards could also instead buy credits from carmakers that did — or even surpassed them — such as Tesla. That provision earned Tesla US$2.8 billion in 2024 — revenue it will no longer see. Elon Musk sharply criticized the big tax-and-spending bill in June, saying it 'gives handouts to industries of the past while severely damaging industries of the future.' Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the law's effect on those credits. The agency wrote to carmakers earlier this month informing them the penalties wouldn't be issued from the model year 2022 onward. Some automakers confirmed receiving the letter but declined to comment further. Experts say without them, the law 'invites automakers to cheat on government fuel economy rules by setting fines to US$0, ensuring consumers will buy more gas guzzlers, pay more at the pump and enrich Big Oil,' said Dan Becker, director of the Center for Biological Diversity's Safe Climate Transport Campaign. Ann Carlson, an environmental law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, and a former acting NHTSA administrator under Biden, called it a 'stunning decision' for NHTSA to essentially forgive the fines from 2022 onward. She said it amounted to a windfall for companies that chose to pay penalties rather than produce more efficient cars. Carlson said backing away from future fines also 'poses a dilemma for auto manufacturers who may feel bound to comply with the law, even if there is not a financial consequence for failing to do so.' Where auto manufacturers go from here It takes a while for carmakers to shift their product lines, and experts say automakers might be locked into their technology and manufacturing decisions for the next few model years. But changes could come for model year 2027 and beyond, they said. EVs aren't as profitable as gas-engine cars, so automakers may make fewer of them if they no longer have to offset emissions from their gasoline models. Already, some automakers have pulled back on their ambitions to go all-electric with a slower pace of EV sales growth. 'Automakers also know every presidential administration eventually comes to an end, so they won't abandon their EV development efforts,' said Karl Brauer, executive analyst at 'But they will reduce their near-term efforts in this area.' ___ Alexa St. John, The Associated Press
Yahoo
17 hours ago
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Trump's EPA is targeting key vehicle pollution rules. What that means for carmakers
DETROIT (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency's plan this week to relax rules aimed at cleaning up auto tailpipe emissions is the latest Trump administration move to undo incentives for automakers to go electric. As part of a larger effort to undo climate-based governmental regulations, the EPA on Tuesday said it wants to revoke the 2009 finding that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare. That would cripple the legal basis for limiting emissions from things like power plants and motor vehicles. Switch Auto Insurance and Save Today! Affordable Auto Insurance, Customized for You The Insurance Savings You Expect Great Rates and Award-Winning Service President Donald Trump's massive tax and spending law already targets EV incentives, including the imminent removal of a credit that saves buyers up to $7,500 on a new electric car. The tax law approved in early July also includes another provision that will hit Tesla and other EV makers in the pocketbook — repealing fines for automakers that don't meet federal fuel economy standards. Automakers can buy credits under a trading program if they don't meet the mileage standards. EV makers like Tesla, which don't rely on gasoline, earn credits that they can sell to other carmakers. The arrangement has resulted in billions of dollars in revenue for Tesla and millions for other EV makers like Rivian. That is all set to go away under the new law. Trump has also challenged federal EV charging infrastructure money and blocked California's ban of new gas-powered vehicle sales. It adds up to less pressure on automakers to continue evolving their production away from gas-burning vehicles. And that's significant because transportation — which also includes ships, trains and planes — is the sector that contributes the most to planet-warming emissions in the U.S. Push and pull on tailpipe and mileage rules Stringent tailpipe emissions and mileage rules were part of the Biden administration's pledge to clean up the nation's vehicles and reduce use of fossil fuels by incentivizing growth in EVs. EVs do not use gasoline or emit greenhouse gases. The Trump administration and the auto industry have said both rules were unreasonable for manufacturers. Automakers could meet EPA tailpipe limits with about 56% of new vehicle sales being electric by 2032 — they're currently at about 8% — along with at least 13% plug-in hybrids or other partially electric cars, and more efficient gasoline-powered cars that get more miles to the gallon. The latest mileage targets set under the Biden administration required automakers to get to an average of about 50 miles (81 kilometers) per gallon for light-duty vehicles by model year 2031, and about 35 miles per gallon for pickups and vans by model year 2035. But Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy pressured the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration earlier this year to reverse the rules, and has recently said Biden's inclusion of EVs in calculating them was illegal. NHTSA will likely reset or significantly weaken them. The fines that are going away Then there are the fines that automakers will no longer face for falling short on the fuel economy rules. 'With the signing of the One Big Beautiful Bill, new penalties for automakers not complying with an illegal fuel economy standard designed to push EVs will be zero,' NHTSA spokesman Sean Rushton said in a statement. Some legacy automakers have paid hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties for not meeting them. Just last year, Jeep-maker Stellantis paid $190.7 million for model years 2019 and 2020, and General Motors paid $128.2 million for the 2016 and 2017 model years. Automakers that didn't meet the standards could also instead buy credits from carmakers that did — or even surpassed them — such as Tesla. That provision earned Tesla $2.8 billion in 2024 — revenue it will no longer see. Elon Musk sharply criticized the big tax-and-spending bill in June, saying it 'gives handouts to industries of the past while severely damaging industries of the future.' Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the law's effect on those credits. The agency wrote to carmakers earlier this month informing them the penalties wouldn't be issued from the model year 2022 onward. Some automakers confirmed receiving the letter but declined to comment further. Experts say without them, the law 'invites automakers to cheat on government fuel economy rules by setting fines to $0, ensuring consumers will buy more gas guzzlers, pay more at the pump and enrich Big Oil,' said Dan Becker, director of the Center for Biological Diversity's Safe Climate Transport Campaign. Ann Carlson, an environmental law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, and a former acting NHTSA administrator under Biden, called it a 'stunning decision' for NHTSA to essentially forgive the fines from 2022 onward. She said it amounted to a windfall for companies that chose to pay penalties rather than produce more efficient cars. Carlson said backing away from future fines also 'poses a dilemma for auto manufacturers who may feel bound to comply with the law, even if there is not a financial consequence for failing to do so.' Where auto manufacturers go from here It takes a while for carmakers to shift their product lines, and experts say automakers might be locked into their technology and manufacturing decisions for the next few model years. But changes could come for model year 2027 and beyond, they said. EVs aren't as profitable as gas-engine cars, so automakers may make fewer of them if they no longer have to offset emissions from their gasoline models. Already, some automakers have pulled back on their ambitions to go all-electric with a slower pace of EV sales growth. 'Automakers also know every presidential administration eventually comes to an end, so they won't abandon their EV development efforts," said Karl Brauer, executive analyst at "But they will reduce their near-term efforts in this area.' ___ Alexa St. John is an Associated Press climate reporter. Follow her on X: @alexa_stjohn. Reach her at ___ The Associated Press' climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP's standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Gizmodo
2 days ago
- Automotive
- Gizmodo
Trump's EPA Wants to Pretend That Greenhouse Gases Aren't a Threat to Human Health
In 2009, the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) 'endangerment finding' empowered the U.S. to regulate emissions of greenhouse gases. This scientific and legal determination ruled that planet-warming gases such as carbon dioxide are dangerous to human health and welfare. Now, the Trump administration has moved to rescind that finding. At an auto dealership in Indiana on Tuesday, July 29, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin unveiled the agency's proposal to repeal the finding. The EPA claims this move would save Americans $54 billion in costs annually through the elimination of all greenhouse gas standards for motor vehicles and engines, including Biden's electric vehicle mandate. The rollback marks the most aggressive attempt by President Donald Trump to unravel federal restrictions on fossil fuels. Zeldin called it the 'largest deregulatory action in the history of America' on Tuesday, the Associated Press reports. 'With this proposal, the Trump EPA is proposing to end 16 years of uncertainty for automakers and American consumers,' Zeldin said, according to an agency release. Scientists, climate advocates, environmental policy experts, and former EPA leaders warn the repeal would have severe consequences for American health, well-being, and the climate. 'Abandoning all efforts to address climate change is not in the best interest of anyone but the fossil fuel industry, which has made trillions of dollars over the last 50 years and has shown that if unchecked, it will pursue profits at any cost, even if that destroys the American way of life,' Shannon Baker-Branstetter, senior director of domestic climate at the Center for American Progress, said in a statement. The Clean Air Act requires the EPA to regulate any air pollutant that endangers public health or welfare. In 2007, the Supreme Court ruled that greenhouse gases are subject to this mandate. Two years later, the endangerment finding determined that current and projected atmospheric concentrations of six key greenhouse gases 'threaten the public health and welfare of current and future generations.' The simultaneously issued 'cause or contribute finding' pointed to motor vehicles and engines as major sources of hazardous greenhouse gas emissions. These determinations serve as the legal basis for the EPA to regulate planet-warming pollution. In the 16 years since the agency issued the endangerment finding, scientists have found overwhelming evidence to show that greenhouse gases endanger public health and drive global warming. Even under EPA regulation, emissions have led to deadly consequences for countless Americans, driving more frequent and intense extreme weather events and worsening air quality. Despite this, conservatives and some congressional Republicans have argued that the real threat is overregulation and hidden taxes. In March, Zeldin announced a formal reconsideration of the endangerment finding on the grounds that the EPA failed to consider the regulatory fallout back in 2009. That move was part of a series of environmental rollbacks that aimed to eliminate 31 regulations on clean air, clean water, climate change, and more, according to the AP. Trump set the precedent for these actions with a day-one executive order to drastically scale back environmental regulations, which also demanded the EPA submit a report 'on the legality and continuing applicability' of the endangerment finding. Now, Zeldin aims to 'undo the underpinning of $1 trillion in costly regulations' by revoking the finding altogether, according to the EPA release. The proposal must go through a lengthy review process, including public comment, before it's finalized. Environmental groups have voiced strong opposition to the decision and vowed to fight it, including the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC). 'The EPA wants to shirk its responsibility to protect us from climate pollution, but science and the law say otherwise,' Christy Goldfuss, executive director of the NRDC, said in a statement. 'NRDC's lawyers and scientists are not going to let that happen without a fight. If EPA finalizes this illegal and cynical approach, we will see them in court.'
The Guardian
2 days ago
- Automotive
- The Guardian
Trump moves to scrap climate rule tying greenhouse gases to public health harm
Donald Trump's administration on Tuesday proposed revoking a scientific finding that has long been the central basis for US action to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and fight climate change. The proposed Environmental Protection Agency rule rescinds a 2009 declaration that determined that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare. The 'endangerment finding' is the legal underpinning of a host of climate regulations under the Clean Air Act for motor vehicles, power plants and other pollution sources that are heating the planet. The EPA administrator, Lee Zeldin, announced the proposed rule change on a podcast ahead of an official announcement set for Tuesday in Indiana. Repealing the endangerment finding 'will be the largest deregulatory action in the history of America', Zeldin said on the Ruthless podcast. Zeldin called for a rewrite of the endangerment finding in March as part of a series of environmental rollbacks announced at the same time in what Zeldin said was 'the greatest day of deregulation in American history'. A total of 31 key environmental rules on topics from clean air to clean water and climate change would be rolled back or repealed under Zeldin's plan. He singled out the endangerment finding as 'the holy grail of the climate change religion' and said he was thrilled to end it 'as the EPA does its part to usher in the Golden Age of American success'. The EPA also called for rescinding limits on tailpipe emissions that were designed to encourage automakers to build and sell more electric vehicles. The transportation sector is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the US. Three former EPA leaders have criticized Zeldin, saying his March proposal would endanger the lives of millions of Americans and abandon the agency's dual mission to protect the environment and human health. 'If there's an endangerment finding to be found anywhere, it should be found on this administration because what they're doing is so contrary to what the Environmental Protection Agency is about,' Christine Todd Whitman, who led EPA under the Republican president George W Bush, said after Zeldin's plan was made public. The EPA proposal follows an executive order from Trump that directed the agency to submit a report 'on the legality and continuing applicability' of the endangerment finding. Conservatives and some congressional Republicans hailed the initial plan, calling it a way to undo economically damaging rules to regulate greenhouse gases. But environmental groups, legal experts and Democrats said any attempt to repeal or roll back the endangerment finding would be an uphill task with slim chance of success. The finding came two years after a 2007 supreme court ruling holding that the EPA has authority to regulate greenhouse gases as air pollutants under the Clean Air Act. David Doniger, a climate expert at the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group, said it was virtually 'impossible to think that the EPA could develop a contradictory finding [to the 2009 standard] that would stand up in court'. Doniger and other critics accused Trump's Republican administration of using potential repeal of the endangerment finding as a 'kill shot'' that would allow him to make all climate regulations invalid. If finalized, repeal of the endangerment finding would erase current limits on greenhouse gas pollution from cars, factories, power plants and other sources and could prevent future administrations from proposing rules to tackle climate change. 'The endangerment finding is the legal foundation that underpins vital protections for millions of people from the severe threats of climate change, and the Clean Car and Truck Standards are among the most important and effective protections to address the largest US source of climate-causing pollution,' said Peter Zalzal, associate vice-president of the Environmental Defense Fund. 'Attacking these safeguards is manifestly inconsistent with EPA's responsibility to protect Americans' health and wellbeing,' he said. 'It is callous, dangerous and a breach of our government's responsibility to protect the American people from this devastating pollution.'
BBC News
3 days ago
- Business
- BBC News
Sheffield company launches eco-bricks that 'absorb carbon'
A start-up company in Sheffield has launched environmentally-friendly bricks which absorb and permanently store greenhouse developer earth4Earth, based at Sheffield Technology Parks, said the bricks capture carbon dioxide from the air around them but are also manufactured using methods which do not produce first batch is now being used in pilot projects across Theodore Hanein said: "We are incredibly excited about how our work is going to help construction projects achieve net zero and the huge difference it will make in restoring planetary health." 'Fully recyclable' Support manager Anna Simmons explained the bricks were created using soil excavated from construction sites which would otherwise go to was then combined with a newly-developed binder to make the bricks Mr Hanein said the binder was not like the kind used in traditional bricks which is created by heating limestone to about 1,000°C to create a material called said this process created carbon dioxide as a by-product as well as requiring fossil fuels to be burned to reach the very high he said his team had developed a way to create lime at room temperature which released carbon in a solid form instead of a Simmons added the bricks were "fully recyclable" and, after being crushed, could then be turned into new bricks or used in soil as a are currently manufactured in Wuhan, China, then imported into the she said the company was planning to move production next year to further reduce its carbon footprint. 'Huge impact' John Grant, senior lecturer in climate change and sustainability at Sheffield Hallam University, said it was "critical" to find ways to reduce the impact of the construction industry on the said he believed it "consumes more resources and produces more waste than any other single industry" and the creation of common building materials - such as traditional bricks and concrete - was having a "huge" said he supported the concept of a lower-carbon brick like the kind developed by earth4Earth but that the company would have to prove the strength and longevity of the Grant added that a "vast number of different technologies" would need to be used to negate the amount of pollution from construction."We have created a society based around the emission of carbon but we need to pivot on that to something that doesn't," he said. Listen to highlights from South Yorkshire on BBC Sounds or catch up with the latest episode of Look North.
