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The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed a two-year extension of the previous administration’s compliance deadline for light- and medium-duty vehicle emissions standards (EPA.gov).

What’s going on: The agency announced the draft deregulatory action last week, which aims to give auto manufacturers until model year 2029 to comply with the Biden-era emissions rules amid slowed demand for electric vehicles while the agency considers additional deregulatory actions.

• The Tier 4 standards, put into place in 2024 and opposed by the NAM, are slated to go into effect on vehicles model year 2027 onward.
• “This proposal aims to return EPA regulations to reality, restoring consumer choice, protecting good-paying American jobs and strengthening the nation’s global competitiveness while the agency works to reconsider the Tier 4 standards,” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said.
• The draft extension is part one of a larger review of Tier 4 standards, according to the EPA.

Why it’s important: The 2024 standards were based on “assumptions by the Biden administration that EVs would make up a significant percentage of MY 2027 and beyond fleets, causing the administration to set unrealistic emission standards for internal combustion engine vehicles,” the EPA said.

• In the two years since the rulemaking, however, those projections have not borne out, “mak[ing] the Tier 4 standards unattainable for manufacturers and driv[ing] up the cost of vehicles as they try to comply.”

Our view: “We applaud the EPA for recognizing the undue regulatory burden that the MY 2027 emissions standards are placing on manufacturers,” said NAM Senior Director of Energy and Resources Policy Mike Davin.

• “A more realistic approach to these standards and a broader review of Tier 4 standards would protect manufacturing investment and support continued growth in the automotive sector.”