The proposed EPA emission standards rule will likely result in legal challenges from individual US states under the major questions doctrine, which limits the authority of federal administrative agencies to act unilaterally on issues of critical economic significance. The EPA’s proposed rule may require two of out three cars and light trucks sold in 2032 to be electric models, which would seem to have a significant economic impact. In June 2022 the US Supreme Court nullified the EPA’s 2015 Clean Power Plan, ruling that the agency lacked authority, based on the major questions doctrine.
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After more than a year of offering incentives for industries to invest in clean energy, the US Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) on 12 April 2023 announced what it called the most ambitious auto pollution rules in history, with the aim
of accelerating automakers’ shift to electric vehicles.
• Under the EPA proposal, carbon dioxide emissions for new cars and light trucks would need to fall by 49 percent on
average from 2027 to 2032. The agency is also proposing tightened standards for medium- and heavy-duty vehicles, with
the latter including dump trucks, school buses and tractor-trailers.
• However, some Republican lawmakers are predicting a consumer backlash to the EPA proposal.
• But industry analysts say car buyers in the US are showing a growing appetite for electric vehicles, and that could
increase if the EPA rules lead to more models, some advocates said.
Relevance for PGM industry
• Electric vehicles made up about 5.6 percent of cars and trucks sold in 2022, from 1.8 percent in 2020 and 3.1 percent in
2021, according to data from S&P Global Mobility.
• Transport is responsible for 37 percent of US emissions of carbon dioxide, with light-duty vehicles accounting for 58
percent of that figure, according to EPA figures.
• The new tailpipe rules proposed by EPA could push electric vehicles to make up two-thirds of new car sales in US by
2032.
• Although the new proposal does not mandate a certain percentage of EV sales, but rather mandates rapidly decreasing
average fleet CO2 emissions, automakers will likely lean heavily on battery electric vehicles.
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