The EPA unveils final regulations to the auto industry to try to keep the world livable

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) revealed its final pollution emission standards for the auto industry on Wednesday. The regulations, which include a looser time frame than those proposed last year, require that by 2032 most sales of new passenger cars and light trucks in the U.S. be electric or hybrid.

Earth is on a catastrophic trajectory with climate change and no amount of baseless conspiracy theories or threads from the oil and gas industry, Donald Trump or anyone else is going to change that. Only phasing out fossil fuels and emissions will overcome its worst effects. The Biden administration’s EPA is trying to do just that — while throwing stakeholders like unions and automakers a bone to navigate the landmines of today’s political realities.

The final rules lay out a timetable for ending purchases of gas-powered vehicles, making most U.S. car sales fully electric, hybrid, plug-in hybrid or advanced gasoline by 2032. The transition begins in 2027, but is slowing down until after 2030. That’s a key shift from last April’s proposed standards, which called for electric vehicles to make up two-thirds of vehicle sales by 2032.

The change was an election-year compromise for Biden, who must balance a crucial battle against climate change with support from the auto union in 2024. Unions had pushed for a slower pace out of concerns that a more aggressive transition, like the EPA’s proposed last year, will lead to job losses. Electric vehicles typically require fewer assembly workers than traditional gas-powered vehicles.

Last year, United Auto Workers (UAW) President Sean Fein withdrew support for Biden’s re-election bid over concerns about the EV transition. But (perhaps after hearing assurances about the revised rules) the UAW endorsed his re-election bid in January.

“The EPA has made significant progress on its final rule on greenhouse gas emissions for light-duty vehicles,” the UAW wrote in a statement about the new rules released by the EPA. “Taking the concerns of workers and communities seriously, EPA has gone a long way to create a more workable emissions rule that protects workers building ICE vehicles while providing a path forward for automakers to implement the full range of automotive technologies for reducing emissions.”

Contrary to what online misinformation or your uncle might tell you, the rules — aimed at the auto industry, not consumers — don’t make gas-powered cars and trucks illegal. Instead, they require automakers to meet specific emissions standards across their product lines. The rules apply to the sale of new vehicles, not used.

The EPA says the final rule will result in $99 billion in benefits and save the average American driver $6,000 in fuel and maintenance over the lifetime of their vehicles. Other benefits include avoiding 7.2 billion additional tonnes of CO2 emissions by 2055 and offering “nearly $100 billion in annual net benefits to society”. Reductions in fine particulate matter and ozone are said to prevent up to 2,500 premature deaths in 2055, while reducing associated health problems such as heart attacks, asthma and other respiratory diseases.

“Three years ago, I set an ambitious goal: that half of all new cars and trucks sold in 2030 would be zero-emissions,” President Biden wrote in a statement provided by the White House to Engadget. “I brought together American automakers. I brought together American auto workers. Together we have made historic progress. Hundreds of new expanded factories across the country. Hundreds of billions in private investment and thousands of well-paying union jobs. And we will meet my 2030 goal and race ahead in the coming years. Today we are setting new pollution standards for cars and trucks. American workers will lead the world in automobiles, producing clean cars and trucks, each bearing the “Made in America” stamp.”