.Obama to Set New Vehicle Rules, First Carbon Limit
May 18 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama will announce new vehicle-emission rules tomorrow, setting the first-ever nationwide limit on greenhouse-gas pollution from autos, people familiar with the plan said.
The move would force automakers to meet a fuel-economy standard for 2016 models of slightly less than 35.5 miles a gallon, a target Congress has said wouldn’t have to be met until 2020, according to one of the people, who asked not to be identified until the plan is made public.
The action is the “biggest single step to curb global warming” and follows the lead of California, which wants to cut emissions 30 percent by 2016, Dan Becker, director of the environmental group Safe Climate Campaign, said in an interview.
The federal plan settles the question of whether states can set their own rules for regulating tailpipe emissions, which automakers called an unworkable patchwork of rules.
“It will establish a single national standard that will provide predictability and certainty for the auto companies in meeting regulations,” Senator Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat, said in a statement.
Auto industry officials such as General Motors Corp. Chief Executive Officer Fritz Henderson will attend tomorrow’s announcement by Obama, as will California’s Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Michigan’s Democratic Governor Jennifer Granholm, one of the people said.
“Tomorrow you will see people that normally are at odds with each other in agreement with each other,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said today.
‘Declare Victory’
“I believe the automakers are going to get behind this and declare victory,” Becker said. The companies will also drop their lawsuit against the state of California’s proposed emissions standard, he said.
The Washington-based Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, whose members include GM, Chrysler LLC, Ford Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Corp., didn’t immediately comment on the plan.
Under the proposal, the Environmental Protection Agency would set the new standard for greenhouse gas emissions, and that standard would be harmonized with separate fuel-economy rules set by the Transportation Department.
The federal rule would start with 2012 models, according to one of the people familiar with the proposal. The Transportation Department would continue with plans to set fuel-economy standards based on vehicle attributes, such as size and weight, an approach that automakers back, the person said.
A law enacted by Congress in 2007 required automakers to raise fuel-economy standards by at least 40 percent, forcing them to hit a target of 35 mpg by 2020. By comparison, the standard for 2011 models is 27.3 mpg.
Faster Redesigns
The companies will have to redesign their vehicles faster than planned to meet the 2016 target, “and that makes for a lot of expense because you can’t recoup the cost for whatever you’ve invested,” said K.G. Duleep, managing director of consulting firm Energy & Environmental Analysis Inc. in Arlington, Virginia.
California has been seeking a federal waiver to set a greenhouse-gas emissions standard under legislation signed into law by Schwarzenegger in 2004.
Former President George W. Bush turned down the waiver request, only to have Obama, during his first week in Office, direct the EPA to reconsider the decision. More than a dozen states said they would follow the California program.
Needing Certainty
“What the auto companies need is certainty,” said Roland Hwang, San Francisco-based vehicles policy director for the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group. “The longer there is lack of clarity about whether there will be 14 states with the California program and what the stringency of greenhouse gas and fuel economy standards will be, the more difficult it is for them to make investments.”
California still may need to get its waiver so the state could regulate emissions while the federal regulation is developed, Becker said.
Bloomberg
The move would force automakers to meet a fuel-economy standard for 2016 models of slightly less than 35.5 miles a gallon, a target Congress has said wouldn’t have to be met until 2020, according to one of the people, who asked not to be identified until the plan is made public.
The action is the “biggest single step to curb global warming” and follows the lead of California, which wants to cut emissions 30 percent by 2016, Dan Becker, director of the environmental group Safe Climate Campaign, said in an interview.
The federal plan settles the question of whether states can set their own rules for regulating tailpipe emissions, which automakers called an unworkable patchwork of rules.
“It will establish a single national standard that will provide predictability and certainty for the auto companies in meeting regulations,” Senator Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat, said in a statement.
Auto industry officials such as General Motors Corp. Chief Executive Officer Fritz Henderson will attend tomorrow’s announcement by Obama, as will California’s Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Michigan’s Democratic Governor Jennifer Granholm, one of the people said.
“Tomorrow you will see people that normally are at odds with each other in agreement with each other,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said today.
‘Declare Victory’
“I believe the automakers are going to get behind this and declare victory,” Becker said. The companies will also drop their lawsuit against the state of California’s proposed emissions standard, he said.
The Washington-based Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, whose members include GM, Chrysler LLC, Ford Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Corp., didn’t immediately comment on the plan.
Under the proposal, the Environmental Protection Agency would set the new standard for greenhouse gas emissions, and that standard would be harmonized with separate fuel-economy rules set by the Transportation Department.
The federal rule would start with 2012 models, according to one of the people familiar with the proposal. The Transportation Department would continue with plans to set fuel-economy standards based on vehicle attributes, such as size and weight, an approach that automakers back, the person said.
A law enacted by Congress in 2007 required automakers to raise fuel-economy standards by at least 40 percent, forcing them to hit a target of 35 mpg by 2020. By comparison, the standard for 2011 models is 27.3 mpg.
Faster Redesigns
The companies will have to redesign their vehicles faster than planned to meet the 2016 target, “and that makes for a lot of expense because you can’t recoup the cost for whatever you’ve invested,” said K.G. Duleep, managing director of consulting firm Energy & Environmental Analysis Inc. in Arlington, Virginia.
California has been seeking a federal waiver to set a greenhouse-gas emissions standard under legislation signed into law by Schwarzenegger in 2004.
Former President George W. Bush turned down the waiver request, only to have Obama, during his first week in Office, direct the EPA to reconsider the decision. More than a dozen states said they would follow the California program.
Needing Certainty
“What the auto companies need is certainty,” said Roland Hwang, San Francisco-based vehicles policy director for the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group. “The longer there is lack of clarity about whether there will be 14 states with the California program and what the stringency of greenhouse gas and fuel economy standards will be, the more difficult it is for them to make investments.”
California still may need to get its waiver so the state could regulate emissions while the federal regulation is developed, Becker said.
Bloomberg
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