EPA Brings Up Alternatives to Electric Car Mandate in East : Autos: The agency seeks a compromise between car makers and states that want to adopt California’s emission rules.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, in quiet meetings with car makers and state environmental regulators, has signaled that it might try to head off the growing efforts by East Coast states to mandate the use of electric cars--a move that could leave California alone to face the strong opposition of Detroit’s Big Three auto makers.
A dozen East Coast states want to adopt California’s strict tailpipe emission standards to help meet federal clean air standards. Like California, New York and Massachusetts have mandated the use of electric cars, and other states are expected to follow their lead.
The big U.S. auto makers strongly oppose any expansion of a mandated market for electric cars, which they say are going to be high-priced and low on performance, making them hard to sell.
The EPA is attempting to find a compromise between the feuding companies and the state regulators. But the idea of dropping electric car mandates has drawn a quick, angry response from several states.
“It’s unbelievable,” said Trudy Coxe, Massachusetts secretary of environmental affairs and a member of the Ozone Transport Commission, which represents 12 eastern states and the District of Columbia.
“Without any discussion with Massachusetts or New York,” Coxe said Friday, “we would be asked in the future to put our zero-emission vehicle law in abeyance. . . . Detroit will pick off Massachusetts, pick off New York and destroy a new industry--and the only entity left standing will be California, so why not pick it off too?”
The agency is hoping to avoid lawsuits and other delays as the northeastern states face a Nov. 15 deadline to submit plans to meet the federal Clean Air Act. In a 9-4 vote Feb. 2, the state group petitioned the EPA to approve their use of California’s strict standards to reduce emissions--though without specifically requiring zero-emission vehicles, which would almost certainly be electric cars.
Without a negotiated compromise, the EPA expects either the auto makers or the states and various environmental groups to sue, no matter which way it decides on the states’ proposal.
The EPA is “exploring the feasibility and usefulness” of holding meetings between the auto makers and states, said John Beale, deputy director of the Air Policy Office of the EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation.
He described avoiding mandates for electric cars as one of many potential “elements” of an agreement. However, he said, “We’ve not said this is a compromise package and put it on the table.”
Mary Nichols, assistant administrator for air and radiation, outlined the elements of a compromise with Andrew H. Card Jr., president of the American Automobile Manufacturers Assn. and other Big Three auto executives in Washington on July 14. She sketched the same ideas to 12 of 13 commissioners from the northeastern states commission on Thursday.
One state official described the proposals as including a so-called 49-state car--a low-emission vehicle that would not meet California standards but would be required in all other states. The auto industry has proposed a non-electric car it claims is 99% pollution-free.
“Many of the elements contained in the proposal . . . are very much worth discussing with the auto industry and others,” Coxe said, “but it can’t be by sacrificing the electric vehicle technology that is growing day by day.”
