Vehicle Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standards

Vehicle Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standards

Current Status of Vehicle Emission Standards in the United States

On May 19, 2009, President Obama announced a national standard for passenger vehicles was to be set through a joint rulemaking process between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) for compliance years 2012-2016. This Federal collaboration is largely in response to action that has taken place on the state level, particularly California’s efforts to establish state vehicle emission standards that are higher than federal standards. 

The Final Rulemaking was issued on April 1, 2010, which sets the federal standard to achieve the same fuel economy improvement as the California standard would have – 35.5mpg equivalent – and also includes a greenhouse gas emission limit per vehicle. Although the announcement did not specifically grant the California waiver, California agreed to amend their standard to conform to the federal standard from 2012 to 2016, if it received a waiver to set its own vehicle standards after 2016 and enforce its own standards for model years 2009 to 2011. Under this agreement, automakers also agreed to drop lawsuits against California’s proposed vehicle standard. Read more about the President’s announcement here.

In January 2011, The EPA, U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) and California issued a statement of intent to coordinate standards from 2017 to 2025, demonstrating their intention to continue collaboration.

Background on State Action

In 2002, California enacted AB 1493 (“Pavley Global Warming Bill”), a law that requires reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from light-duty vehicles. The California Air Resources Board (CARB) is responsible for setting the standards, which apply to new vehicles starting in the 2009 model year.  The standard requires that new vehicles, on average, achieve an emissions reduction of 30 percent by 2016 and covers carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and hydrofluorocarbon emissions. 

In 2004, a lawsuit was filed by major automakers in an attempt to block California from implementing its Clean Cars Law (AB 1493), but California won the case in December 2007 when Judge Anthony Ishii dismissed the lawsuit.  Under the Federal Clean Air Act, California is the only state with the ability to set standards for motor vehicles, as long as these standards are at least as stringent as the federal standards.  More than fifteen states have adopted or have announced their intention to adopt the California standards.

In 2007, the Supreme Court ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has the authority to regulate GHG emissions from the transportation sector under the Clean Air Act, which helped pave the way for an aggressive national policy.

On June 30, 2009 the EPA granted a waiver allowing California to regulate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from vehicles within the state. California and the other states which have adopted the California standard have agreed to conform to the federal standard from 2012 to 2016. With the waiver decision, states will be able to regulate vehicle emissions using the California standards from now until the federal standard takes effect in 2012, and after 2016. Thus far, 15 states including California, have adopted California’s vehicle emissions standards, and bills have been proposed in several other states.

More information about California’s waivers can be found  here. For more information on California vehicle standards, click  here. For more information on federal vehicle standards, click here. To see a comparison of actual and projected fuel economy for new passenger vehicles, click here.