House Democrats proposed the largest year-over-year greenhouse gas emissions cuts from the transportation sector to date as the party attempts to piece together a comprehensive approach to curb climate change.
Energy and Commerce Committee Democrats’ new draft climate bill, released on Tuesday, would order the Environmental Protection Agency to issue standards for passenger cars to cut their greenhouse gas emissions by at least 6% per year.
That pace of emissions cuts is speedier than even the most stringent portion of Obama fuel economy and greenhouse gas limits. The Obama administration’s standards would have required an average annual decline in passenger cars’ emissions by 3.5% for model years of cars from 2017 through 2021 and 5% for model year 2022 through 2025 cars.
The robust transportation requirements seek to tackle pollution from the largest-emitting sector in the United States. According to the EPA’s latest data, the transportation sector accounted for 29% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in 2017. More than half the sector’s emissions came from light-duty cars and trucks.
The draft bill’s requirements are likely to give automakers pause.
A representative from the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, the newly merged trade group representing the bulk of the auto industry, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the House Democrats’ plan.
Automakers have raised significant concerns, however, with the later years of the Obama administration standards, arguing a 5% year-over-year emissions decrease was based on assumptions for electric vehicle adoption and fuel efficiency improvements that were too rosy.
The auto industry urged the Trump administration to redo the standards. The EPA and the Transportation Department are slated to finalize regulations in the coming months that would likely require little to no year-over-year improvements in fuel economy and reductions in emissions.
The Trump administration also took steps last year to block states from going beyond federal limits, eliminating California’s special ability to set its own tailpipe emissions limits and barring other states from adopting those.
House Energy and Commerce Committee Democrats, however, have a much different vision for the transportation sector.
“The CLEAN Future Act treats this climate crisis like the emergency that it is, while also setting the foundation for strengthening our economy and creating good-paying jobs for a clean and climate-resilient future,” said committee Chairman Frank Pallone of New Jersey, Paul Tonko of New York, and Bobby Rush of Illinois in a joint statement on the bill text.
Under the draft bill, the EPA would have to issue its first set of standards, for model year 2026 vehicles, within a year after the bill is signed into law. Those standards must cover at least five model years, and the EPA must ensure every successive set of standards is stronger than the previous. The limits must also be in line with the legislation’s overall goal to reach net-zero economywide emissions by 2050, the text says.
The draft legislation would also require the EPA to set new standards for medium- and heavy-duty trucks that cut emissions by at least 4% year-over-year.
In addition, the bill directs the EPA to issue within two years first-time greenhouse gas limits for new and existing aircraft engines, meeting at least a 50% reduction below 2010 levels by 2031. Currently, there aren’t any emissions limits for aircraft domestically. The Obama administration signed onto global agreements under the International Civil Aviation Organization to reduce carbon dioxide from new aircraft engines and cap greenhouse gas emissions from existing planes, but the EPA hasn’t codified those agreements.
The bill would also allow all states to adopt California’s vehicle emissions standards. Currently, only states with areas that fall short of national air quality standards can adopt those limits.
The legislation doesn’t make any changes to the Transportation Department’s authority to set fuel efficiency requirements for cars and trucks, however.
