A consortium of two-dozen environmental activist groups sent a letter to President Joe Biden this week expressing concern that his administration’s emissions standards are not strict enough.
In the letter, the activist group urged the Biden Adminsitration to implement more stringent emissions laws that match the Obama era year-over-year emissions reductions of five percent. The current laws, which were negotiated between a group of five automakers and the state of California last year, mandate year-over-year reductions of about 3.7 percent. However the real-world reductions are actually closer to 2.7 percent, according to Bloomberg, as automakers are allowed to receive credits in exchange for implementing certain emissions-reducing technologies.
“Our nation’s standards must be robust, have integrity and ensure strong year-over-year on-road emission reductions,” the group said in the letter, which was signed by the Natural Resources Defense Council, League of Conservation Voters and Sierra Club, among more. “The standards must not be undermined by complex credit schemes that reward automakers for reductions on paper that aren’t matched in real world performance.”
The group was also critical of the California emissions deal as it does not recognize the emissions created by charging electric vehicles. The Obama-era policy, by comparison, would have accounted for emissions produced by charging EVs using energy from coal-fired plants. The group is also concerned that automakers will lean on ZEV credits to avoid making the gasoline vehicles they will sell for the next 15 years or so more efficient.
“It is important to accelerate the transition to EVs and recognize that there are going to be hundreds of millions of new gas-powered vehicles made before the last internal combustion engine vehicle is sold, and those new gas-powered vehicles need to have their emissions controlled better than they are now,” Dan Becker, director of the Safe Climate Transport Campaign for the Center for Biological Diversity, told Bloomberg this week.
White House National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy said this week the Biden Administration is “looking at developing a rule that does catch up, developing a rule that goes further out, and we are going to continue to talk to the car companies,” with regard to setting emissions standards.
Subscribe to GM Authority for more fuel economy-related news and ongoing General Motors news coverage.
Comments
Biden can burn in hell.
TRUMP won, over 300 electoral votes.
JK
Sounds like you were one of the idiots who attacked the Capital on January 6. And you couldn’t even kill Mike Pence. Hope you enjoyed the prison sex
You sound like another bitter angry liberal. What do people like you do when the rest of us are having fun with family and friends enjoying the fruits of our labor in this awesome country? It’s okay we know. Peaceful protests and complaining about how bad it is here. Sad life man.
I thought people like you were nuts until I saw the reaction to the audit efforts in Arizona. And then what happened in Georgia.
Now I’m actually pretty skeptical that everything was on the up and up.
member12
Biden 81 million 306 electoral votes
Trump 74 million 232 electoral votes
I see Republican sore losers racing to change voter laws because they can no longer win a free and fair election.
BTW: If Georgia’s 16 electoral votes and Arizona’s 11 electoral votes went to Trump, Biden would have still won.
too bad, biden is a failure and always will be, he iscompletely destroyed this country before our very eyes
Afi K. James
Relax, Biden is only going to be President for 8 years. After that we’ll probably elect Alexandria Ocasio Cortez just stick it to the few remaining Republicans that haven’t died from Covid 19.
The My Pillow guy and former Crack Feind-Mike Lindell tried to state that Trump won 80 Million while only Biden only received 68 Million votes, hey Mike stick to getting Giuliani to promote your House Slippers.
Based off the 3rd party audits going on that is probably going to turn out to be true. You don’t get 80 million votes when California mails ballots to Nevada for former residents.
Hey Pete what’s it like being scared of everything and hating America
Trump is burning in hell right now with the Criminal Investigations jumping on his back along with his family members, that’s pretty much what’s winning him over right now.
Two things can be true, Biden can burn in hell and trump lost…
biden is a pos anyways.
you’ll never satisfy that bunch.
People are so simple minded they don’t have a clue how economy works. They think if keep coal mining jobs or continue to make smoking rumbling inefficient cars everything is going to be ok. No! Innovation, efficiency and the march towards higher technology industries always have been to key to economic development. That’s why industrial countries are more prosperous than farming countries. It’s not about zero unemployment, everyone might has a job to earn a crust, it doesn’t add up to good economy or good life.
And you need to constantly progress and keep your technological edge otherwise you lose. As an example; the computer industry born in the US and until late 80s early nineties all computer were made in America then rapid progress of personnel computer tech and architecture settled and this created an opportunity for Asian countries enter into game with lower labor costs. If revolutionary changes had kept going their labor cost advantage will never matter.
If you don’t innovate, change, evolve then those products and businesses are destined to die. That’s why thousands of traditional industries that once responsible millions of jobs are gone.
A big part of the economy and national defense is plentiful and cheap natural energy.
Wind is not cutting it and solar is failing.
The way forward is a mix of all resources in a orderly way to what works where the best.
I am not against wind or solar but we have already seen it fail to replace what we have, some coal and gas fired plants using gas and coal from here are key to make up the deficit,
As technology progresses we can adjust to what progresses.
But to just stop one tech with the other unable to fill the needs is just mindless stupidity. Or radicalism that is trying to dismantle the place America hold in the world.
If we want full EV’s, we are going to need power plants capable of base load generation. And that likely means nuclear or natural gas – both of which have been fought hard by these same radical activists that want to ban red meat consumption because of cow farts .
We have plenty of power to cover the cars. The numbers are presented and we have the capacity.
The problem is in some areas the bride needs work. Getting the power where needed is the trouble but that is in only a small part of our most populated areas.
But I am in no way supporting the wacko left on this just being honest on points people get wrong.
They come for my steak they will pay the price!
C8.r, mixture is the golden word you just said. That’s why the last administration was subsidizing Coal fire plants that were going to be replaced by natural gas, because when there’s a gas shortage, or prices hike, you can shift back to coal… like right now as gas jumps back up. We really need more nukes, like why are we shooting our self’s in the foot??? We need more of them! But we also need a variety of power sources, so when one experiences supply issues, we went out of luck
Where in the h*** did you get info that Wind and Solar were failing. Please cite your sources.
Read up the failures in Europe.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelshellenberger/2019/05/06/the-reason-renewables-cant-power-modern-civilization-is-because-they-were-never-meant-to/?sh=12b11278ea2b
C8.R
Wind turbines, Solar panels & Hydro electric dams are the cheapest ways to produce electricity. Once Solar Panels and Wind Turbines are installed, there’s no drilling, mining or shipping required. Just decades of clean energy.
Yes they are cheap but! The number of windmills and solar farms needed are greater than what we can put is. Also to maintain them is very expensive. They are not maintenance free.
As for hydro. That is in limited areas and even then the environmental people are removing them.
C8.R “maintenance is very expensive”
Still cheaper than shipping coal across half the country.
Peter, coal from west Virginia to Texas is almost free. Just follow the river current. Gravity does all the work.
You’re too underinformed to realize those “thousands of traditional industries the once responsible millions of jobs are gone” because they are mostly all being performed for slave wages in SE Asia. They aren’t “gone” at all and you’re still buying their products to make the Chinese Communists running the PRC rich. Those “revolutionary changes” you are yapping about are quickly stolen by foreign spies from you-know-where.
Never said low cost labor was a primary issue. It is not just China.
Labor is a competitive thing and if you don’t keep production cost down no one buys even wearing a buy American shirts.
America is no longer alone in production of quality goods and the only way is tariffs and taxes with low wages to balance the price. The trouble there is we are only one market and they will dominate where we can’t compete.
If it were easy this would be solved
it was not the cost of labor that drove car companies overseas. it was unions because the import car companies with no unions have no problem paying the higher wages here in the USA. it was the union work rules.
Since it is called global climate change and I am a best bang for your buck guy and we seem to pay for a lot of the worlds problems anyway,why not pay the worlds worst polluters to clean up there act?
And for every pound of pollution that the US cuts, China will add two pounds.
The problem with activist is that they can never be satisfied. Their existence is whining. Their job is making obnoxious noise, and many heads of these “activist” organizations actually get paid by the organization…. sometimes a whopping lot!
Never mind that the United States makes more progress and is one of the cleanest in the world (only beaten by countries that are empty wastelands)
Same thing with the social justice activist, America was the first country to try to abolish slavery, 3rd to succeed and norther states beat the other 2 by decades, was the sole country to stop the slave trade with our navy patrolling west Africa from 1812-1861 when ships were recalled for the civil war, forced most the rest of the world to formally abolish slavery by denying aid and UN status, and still nearly half the countries of the world still have yet to formally abolish it. Yet we get all the crap from activist!?!?
both political parties keep this going because that is how they raise money. if the problem get solved the money stops coming in so they start a new problem.
Empty barrels make the most noise
They have accepted government as their religion. And they are radical evangelicals when it comes to their beliefs.
They won’t be satisfied even if we are all living in the jungle without shelter or technology. Don’t give them an inch. They will take a mile and then call you a racist afterwards.
While pressure to improve usually yields improvements, good thing…
Activists often don’t know or care about the truth, bad thing…
Activists will still be pushing to lower emissions when all cars on the road are 0 emitting vehicles! They don’t realize that the US has already done 1000x more than any other nation to clean up its act. By pushing to continue to lower the emissions of already extremely low emitting vehicles they just raise the price of cars. And in the long run, this makes no difference in anything since most other nations are literally pouring the coal to it. We just shoot ourselves in the foot and our economy too.
As for Biden…he is not likely to make any good decisions, let alone which shoe goes on the foot that is in his mouth. I really care about emission laws and the destruction that the EPA is doing to one of our nation’s greatest loves, COOL CARS. But Biden??? is likely to do a lot more harm than just that.
Nailed it !
Let those elitist “activists” have their way with demented-Joe-the-fraud and the entire Country will soon go bankrupt. The old fool is already touting EV’s with not a clue what the impact will be on those needing to make long trips, take family vacations by car, where all that additional electricity is going to come from and how the already overloaded electrical grid is going to transmit it when everyone plugs in their 220V EV battery charger at the end of the workday and the A/C is already humming. Vehicle Emissions ? Look to the stationary emission sources instead….you know, those who can afford expensive Attorneys and Lobbyists to fight-off regulations and get favorable results. Keep America beautiful….Plant a Sierra Club Member LOL.
Funny how these hypocrites like the Sierra claim to want to preserve nature, but they have no issue with nature being visibly polluted by solar farms and ugly windmills.
The Center for biological diversity? These are the radicals that closed parts of Glamis to off roading because of the milk vetch plant.
For those of us who travel an EV is useless. Right now a 200 mile run is an EV sucks the batteries dry then finding a place to charge is the only destination that can be planned. I know that the manufactures are saying “our EV gets 400 miles on a charge”, but I think real world driving (ie.: traffic, mountains, wind, snow) might nix those claims.
A hybrid MIGHT be an answer, but the activists will end up lobbying for regulations and laws against them too. Remember that we have a stressed infra-structure as it is and plugging in these great EV’s will only stress it more. Another point to ponder is what do we do with the battery packs when they expire? How are they recycled…sent to a third world country to leach into ground water? It’s been shown that the heavier EV’s run through tires at around 20K miles (my Corvette does better than that). How are we going to produce those and recycle that additional load?
For now and quite awhile, I’ll keep my 3 ICE cars. love my 2 land yachts and 1 sports car.
I find it comical when some say Road trips in an EV cannot be done but I would wager to say that most saying it do not own an EV or if they do have the wrong EV.
I have taken plenty of road trips with my car or with other friends EV’s and nothing has changed for me. I will say the following that some might just not understand….Not all EV’s are created equal. You can but I would not suggest taking a long Road Trip on say a Bolt, the DC Fast Charging is borderline a joke for long distance travel. I would also say that what is currently available is NOT the Tech that will be available say in five years and then 10 years down the road. Things will constantly keep improving. EV’s as it stands right now are NOT for everyone. First off the Infrastructure is not up to par yet so hopefully as more EV’s are introduced more real DC Fast charging becomes available. These next 20 years will be a fun ride for sure. Cannot wait to see how the Tech keeps improving and what Cars will be like 20 years from now. Very exciting time for the Auto Industry. As a GM fan I for one am very glad they jumped early into the shift. That might save them from a Merger or even a Bankruptcy.
“Activists” should be forced to either drive “Horses and Buggies” or ride Bicycles. Dumb Hypocrites
If you dumb-o- crats think Biden honesty won the election ,your living in a fantasy , this person can’t put an intelligent sentence together without notes , hope you all enjoy higher prices for everyThing ….
If you Re-pub-tards think that Trump should be in the White House with a Criminal Investigation and a twice Impeachment Status on his record then the fantasy falls on you all.
All of which were proved false and made up by the left. Newsflash he was acquitted of those false claims. The left will stop at nothing for being exposed for the swamp rats they really are and will continue the smear campaign even with him out of office.
False claims for Trump owing the I.R.S over 100 Million Dollars in back State Taxes?, stop fooling yourself with that, twice Impeached nothing false there, despite the fact that he was acquitted, it remains on his record for life, nothing false about that either.
So these are the people that are making it difficult to find a car that I want to buy. I keep putting off a purchase because out of some false sense of optimism that gm will produce a car that I want to buy instead of have to. I have given up hope for a manual transmission because the younger generation are unwilling to learn and experience the joy of running through the gears. I have almost given up hope on an actual non-turbo engine (reliability is key) but each time I find one they have made the trim level soo high that it has priced me out. I look at the cars released elsewhere in the world and wonder couldn’t gm bring those up to North American standards and sell them here. Given up hope that my next car will be at least assembled in the US. EV’s have great acceleration but I have no where to plug it in at night, so they are a non-starter. A modern ICE engine made in the last 10+ years doesn’t pollute any more than the total pollution of an EV when you consider all of the production sources. Sorry to ramble but I am frustrated as I am looking for a reliable vehicle that is fun to drive and won’t break the bank.
It’s all about those profits, at least that’s part of it. Itsurprised me that the Escalade model that cost 100k basically outsold the model that ran for 72k along with a Sold Out pre-order for the upcoming 112k Hummer, the Chevy Cruze had plenty of room for potential in terms of Performance Packages that could have did a legit Face-off with Subaru WRX, the Honda Civic Si along with the Toyota Corolla; while the Impala could’ve had Performance options that would allowed for it to possibly measure up from the Honda Accord to the Dodge Charger/ Challenger and yet those 2 cars are up for a redesign soon, while these may not be the vehicles your speaking of, gm did make some attempt to bring forth affordable vehicles for the customer, sadly they just did not make them competitive enough to prevent their demise.