THE VEHICLES
I think it’s difficult to go back and say, ‘Oh never mind, all that data is wrong.’ But you never know what’s going to happen. existing vehicle emission limits, but stretch out the timeline. Alliance President Mitch Bainwol recently said that the goals of increasing fuel efficiency and reducing carbon emissions are not in dispute. “There is a profound consensus perspective on fuel economy and greenhouse gases,” he wrote. “The only issue is the degree of the slope.” Charged spoke with Partner Michael Steel of the California law firm Morrison & Foerster about the likely timeline of any changes to the regulations. Steel is an environmental lawyer who advises companies on local and statewide pollution requirements, and has worked with both private-sector and California government entities on the implementation of the state’s climate change legislation. He has clients within the auto industry that are following the issue of the CAFE standards closely. back fuel economy standards, but that’s a multi-step process that will take some time. What’s the current state of play?
detailed analysis with a ton of information in it. I think it’s difficult to go back and say, ‘Oh never mind, all that data is wrong.’ But you never know what’s going to happen.
A Michael Steel: One thing that was agreed to at the
Q Charged: So nothing
Q Charged: The US administration wants to roll
time that these standards, which will apply until 2025, were adopted, was that there would be a mid-term review by EPA, and also by the state of California, to determine whether those standards were too onerous, whether they were working, and so forth. So EPA, right before the end of the Obama administration, issued its mid-term report, actually issued it early, and concluded that everything was fine - “These 2025 standards are great, let’s stay the course” - and California shortly thereafter issued a similar mid-term report. The EPA withdrew that report after the change of administration, said that it wanted to consider it further, and that it would issue the report sometime in 2018. That mid-term review, if revised, could provide a basis for revisiting these 2025 standards. I think it’s a tall order for EPA to come up with data that would change the midterm review. It’s a very comprehensive, highly technical,
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changes right away, right? Nothing’s going to change until 2018 when they reissue that mid-term review. A Steel: At the soonest, and even then, it
may very well be that it comes out basically saying, leave things as they are. There’s an administrative process that people have to go through, and those rarely move faster than a year or two. So when you think about it, really the soonest that this could happen, if they were really motivated, would be towards the end of [Trump’s] first term. Q Charged: Is there anything that the federal govern-
ment can do to weaken the California ZEV mandate?