During the campaign, President-Elect Donald Trump called climate change “a hoax” and reaffirmed his view last week by choosing a well-known skeptic of global warming to lead his transition team at the Environmental Protection Agency.
Given Trump’s plan for a comprehensive review of all federal regulations, it’s not hard to predict which way he’s leaning when it comes to the issue of whether the strict fuel economy rules mandated by the Obama administration should be kept in place.
A steep climb is required starting in 2017, so that light vehicles will average 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025. Regulators recently found auto makers are on track to achieve roughly 50.8 mpg, or about 36 mpg in real-world driving. Industry lobbyists have asked for relief.
But it’s important to remember the big picture: the rest of the world is mandating cleaner cars so global carmakers need to invest in these technologies anyway.
The global view is already guiding decision-making: General Motors, for instance, said it’s building a plug-in hybrid version of its flagship Cadillac CT6 sedan to comply with future regulations in China. The vehicle, which will drive 30 miles on full-electric power and has a total range of more than 400 miles, will be exported to the U.S. starting next spring.
China, now the world’s largest auto market, has a lot of catching up to do when it comes to protecting the environment, but its intentions are clear. After selling cars with outdated technology for years, it wants to leapfrog the global industry and be the leader in electric vehicles.
China requires automakers to lower the average fuel consumption of their vehicles to 5 liters per 100 kilometers (about 42 mpg) by 2020 from the current 6.9 liters (34 mpg). The government has targeted a 10-fold increase in electric vehicle sales by 2025. The city of Beijing has already announced that by 2020, it will have the most aggressive emissions standards in the world.
But it’s not just China that is pushing for cleaner cars. Regulations are getting tougher in Europe, too, where currently half the cars run on diesel fuel.
Even in the United States, the head of California’s Air Resources Board, Mary Nichols, tweeted: “We will continue to use our authority under the Clean Air Act to enforce strong emissions standards for vehicles, to promote advanced technology vehicles and to support the transition to clean, renewable energy. Our policies were developed under both Republican and Democratic Administrations, and we expect to work with the new Administration to advocate and to defend those policies where necessary.”
Read more of the original article at Forbes.
