#EPA

On Tuesday, a U.S. appeals court agreed to uphold the Environmental Protection Agency's decision to re-grant a waiver that allows California the ability to set its own tailpipe emissions limits and electric vehicle mandates.

The Biden Administration dropped a new rule limiting tailpipe emissions from passenger vehicles yesterday, and you know what that means.

Yes, it's lying season!

New standards are coming for tailpipe emissions in the next few years. An announcement from the Biden administration this week unveiled the rules, which look to remove more than seven billion tons of carbon and other pollutants from our air.

Reports are circulating that the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will soften vehicle emissions targets against the stringent metrics proposed by the group in 2023. This follows lackluster EV adoption rates that run counter to the plan and pushback from dealer organizations, automakers, and consumer groups. But we need to take a closer look at the story, because things are rarely as simple as initially presented.

The all-new 2024 Toyota Tacoma is starting to land on dealers’ lots, but the EPA hasn’t released fuel economy figures for the truck. Natural Resources Canada has posted its estimates, however, and they’re in line with the numbers seen on window stickers in the United States.

Tesla has long been accused of being, um, “overly optimistic” about its EVs’ range estimates. Its vehicles often fall further from their EPA estimates than other models, prompting an investigation by the DOJ and owner complaints. Now, the automaker has quietly reduced its advertised range estimates, with some falling by significant amounts.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) will soon release its proposal to increase Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency (CAFE) requirements and General Motors has signaled its concerns regarding how much more money it will cost the automotive industry. GM is estimating that the new rules could result in manufacturers paying $100-300 billion in emission fines between 2027 and 2031.

However, the Biden administration has reportedly said it’s highly dependent on which plan is implemented — suggesting industry penalties would vary heavily between companies and average out to be far lower than GM has claimed.

The Alliance for Automotive Innovation (AAI) is reportedly prepared to tell the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that its proposal to significantly reduce vehicle emissions through the 2032 model year is wildly unrealistic. The lobbying group believes that the government’s proposed targets are “neither reasonable nor achievable in the timeframe provided."

An internal memo was released on Wednesday, stating that the regulations introduced by the U.S. government earlier this year were so stringent that they were "a de facto battery-electric vehicle mandate.”

Range and power figures certified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have come out for the Rivian R1S Dual Motor and have been shared by the relevant forums. Things are looking pretty good, too. Depending on how it’s optioned, owners could be seeing 348 miles of range between charges — which is actually better than the automaker had previously speculated.

Word on the street is that the Biden administration is about to propose some of the toughest emission rules the United States has ever seen in a bid to spur electric vehicle adoption. As things currently stand, the U.S. is assumed to be the very last developed nation to fully embrace EVs. But the White House seems to think the premise can be combated via a stringent regulatory framework.

Of course, the government and supportive media outlets are trying to drive home the point that these are not the same as the vehicle mandates being pushed in other countries (and some states like California) that would legally require people to buy electric in the coming years — even if the end result is functionally the same.

On Thursday, a number of Republican senators announced they would be attempting to overturn the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) rules designed to cap emissions on heavy-duty trucks. Finalized by the EPA in December, under guidance from the Biden administration, the new rules are supposed to be 80 percent more stringent than the current standard. However, critics have alleged the updated limits effectively benefit large shipping companies by making it too difficult for smaller trucking companies or independent operators to comply.

The tuning world has always had to adapt to changing laws and regulations, but the industry is grappling with tightening emissions regulations that have changed almost everything about how they can do business. Iconic Miata tuner Flyin’ Miata announced it would no longer sell completely converted cars or conversion kits because of the changes, and now eBay has banned the sale of emissions defeat devices.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will reportedly consider adopting new emissions rules for large trucks after Congress passed fresh incentives designed to accelerate the national adoption of zero-emission vehicles.

Under sustained pressure from the White House to embrace all-electric vehicles, the United States Postal Service (USPS) has reportedly opted to more-than double its initial order of EVs. Considering the agency's previous concerns that electric vehicles might not be well suited to rural communities and would be too expensive to field en masse, this is an unexpected turn of events.

Stellantis has reportedly agreed to plead guilty to criminal conspiracy charges relating to emissions requirements on over 100,000 diesel-powered Ram and Jeep products sold in the United States. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) was previously on the hook for $800 million in civil penalties over a so-called “defeat device” equipped to the automaker’s 3.0-liter turbo-diesel engine. Allegations began in 2017 as regulators were hunting for compliance violations in the wake of Volkswagen’s massive emissions scandal from a couple of years earlier.