Policy Backgrounders

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Geopolitics Hub

Policy Backgrounders

CED’s Policy Backgrounders provide timely insights on prominent business and economic policy issues facing the nation.

EPA Proposed Rules on Vehicle Emissions Standards

April 27, 2023

In two very lengthy and complex rules, EPA has proposed new emissions standards for both light-duty (including cars and SUVs) and medium-duty vehicles and for heavy-duty vehicles (including trucks and buses), to be effective for the 2027 Model Year and beyond, with progressively tighter standards each year after 2028.

Questions remain as to the viability of the proposed EPA standards. The rules are open to public comment, which will help determine the rule to be adopted and whether it will likely be delayed by litigation. EPA also plans to hold a virtual public hearing for this proposed rule, Multi-Pollutant Emissions Standards for Model Years 2027 and Later Light-Duty and Medium-Duty Vehicles on May 9 and 10, 2023. (To register, please send an email to EPA-LD-hearings@epa.gov.)

While the standards do not mandate electrification of vehicles, they do presume that a strong percentage (between 40-60 percent) of vehicles sold by the late 2020s and early 2030s will be electric vehicles using a variety of technologies.

EPA is keying the proposed standards to expected current rates of adoption of electric vehicle technologies but is also requesting comment on three alternative levels of stringency, and on the range of standards across these alternatives and the proposal, and also on whether the standards should continue to increase in stringency for future years, such as through MY 2035.

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