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General Motors Backs EPA’s Emissions Rules Rewrite Proposal

General Motors has expressed support for emissions reduction goals proposed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last month.

Per a recent report from Reuters, General Motors has issued a written statement regarding the proposed rules changes, saying that the EPA’s new emissions reduction goals are “historically stringent.” The company also added that the Biden administration should ensure that automakers in compliance with EPA rules should not be subject to civil penalties under a parallel fuel economy program put forth by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) as a result of “the geographic location” of automakers’ supply chain.

In August, the EPA unveiled new fuel economy and vehicle emission standards for passenger cars and light trucks, proposing that fleet-wide fuel mileage figures be raised to an average of 52 mpg by 2026. The proposed rule changes are a substantial increase from the current target of 40 mpg, representing a 10 percent increase in fleet-wide fuel economy by 2023, and a further 5 percent increase each year after to the 2026 calendar year.

The new proposed fuel economy standards will undo a previous rewrite of fuel economy standards enacted under the Trump administration, during which fleet-wide average fuel economy were reset to 43.3 mpg by 2026.

As GM Authority covered previously, a consortium of 21 state attorney generals have written a letter to the EPA urging that stricter fuel economy and emissions laws be put in place to help curb the effects of anthropogenic climate change. The letter also criticizes the lack of EV mandates in the EPA’s new proposal, indicating that the emissions reductions would only result in roughly 8 percent EV market share by 2030. By contrast, President Biden has proposed a goal of 50 percent EV market share by 2030. The letter was led by California, with participating state including New York and Colorado, as well as several major U.S. cities, such as San Francisco, Denver, and NYC.

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Jonathan is an automotive journalist based out of Southern California. He loves anything and everything on four wheels.

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Comments

  1. People think this is about conservation of the world, but it’s really about control. All vehicles wirelessly tracked and controlled at the flip of a switch. No more freedom, because after they go all electric, the next campaign is to push driverless cars. Electric cars are just a stepping stone to driverless cars. The only way to conserve earth is as little people as possible period. There are many other things of convenience that humans don’t need that contribute to emissions as well.

    Reply
    1. Here’s a fun fact there is 729,761 people named josh in the USA. I saw your bogus comment the other day and wanted to educate you since you are very simple minded. Now do you stand by your claim that the other 729,760 people named josh in the USA alone are “fake” lol.

      Reply
    2. Hate to tell you they already can do that. On star can pull the plug on your ice any where any time.

      This is about money.

      Reply
  2. And when Biden is swept out of office in 2024, gm will be pandering to the new administration to ease the restrictions.

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    1. No it is past that. We have past where you can vote this can vote this out.

      With the billions invested they will it want to change again only in 4 years be forced to go back again.

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      1. They will change?quickly back when they realize the EV market is nowhere near as large as they thought.

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        1. Tigger that would be wonderful but it is not going to happen. The market is going to change. The majority of people will buy the EV products and they will just move on.

          It is kind of like digital TV vs over the air. They changed and people said no one would pay for TV but other than a few hold outs most people are paying for TV.

          You are going to find the average driver could care less if it is gas or electric as long as it gets them there and if they can afford it. With the expected drop in prices of batteries that will be covered.

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      2. I never like it when entire industries put all their eggs in one basket. If EVs are not a success, then we’re looking at a potential meltdown bigger than 2008.

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  3. Government brown nosers

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  4. This forum is understandably focused on the vehicles themselves and therefore bases most of the EV vs ICE comparisons / projections thru that lens. The real challenge in the massive conversion to EVs is not the vehicles but in manufacturing and the electrical infrastructure areas.
    In the manufacturing area it is “assumed” that battery costs will drop due to design improvements and volume efficiencies. That is probably true, but the raw material costs for lithium, cobalt, nickel and copper also need to be considered. We will be moving from less than 3% of a 17M unit market (US only) to 50% of that market. The volume of the raw materials required (1200 – 1600 lbs per battery) x 8-9M batteries per year will be a huge impact to material demand / prices. This of course does not include the rest of the world so materials could be a major blockage to building EVs in large volumes. Look at the current chip issue as an example.
    On the infrastructure front, there have already been rolling blackouts / brownouts in California and Texas in the last year without significant EV volume. Addressing both the capacity (especially with renewables) and local distribution issues to accommodate EVs will be both costly and time consuming. If electrical grid reliability for EV charging is threatened or electricity costs go up then people will avoid pure EVs. The interim answer is hybrids and it seems shortsighted (at least to me) that GM would not allocate a billion or so of the $30B investment to update the existing Volt technology and “hedge their bet”.

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    1. Good points Bill!👍

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  5. Gm –govt ass licker ! They , Barra stabbed trump in the back –this is all BS

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  6. General Motors, since 2008+ has been an government welfare company. It’s sad a once great company, is now a shell.

    The only thing GM knows how to build, is the small block. Since they are moving all EV (which is short sighted) I will get my Camaro SS, and if I need a regular vehicle, I’m going Toyota or Honda.

    Screw General Motors.

    Reply

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