ICCT applauds EPA’s affirmation of 2022-2025 passenger car greenhouse gas standards [press statement]

January 13, 2017—The ICCT fully supports the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s decision, announced today, to maintain the current greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions standards for model years 2022-2025 cars and light trucks.

Our support for EPA’s action is founded on the results of our analyses, conducted over the past year in collaboration with nearly a dozen auto industry suppliers, of technology costs and development trends in the automotive sector. Those analyses clearly indicate that automakers have developed fuel-saving technologies more rapidly and at lower cost than the EPA and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration projected in 2011–2012, when the supporting analyses for the GHG rule were developed. The findings of the exhaustive technical assessment completed last year by EPA as part of the midterm evaluation of the 2022–2025 standards are conservative, compared to our independent analyses, as EPA did not consider adoption of the most recent innovations in conventional power trains and vehicle body design.

The benefits of these fuel economy standards to consumers, the environment, and public health are immense, and the impetus they provide to continued technological innovation in clean transportation is critical.

Contact: Drew Kodjak, Executive Director, drew@theicct.org