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New USDOT secretary issues emissions, EV memorandum

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New U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) Secretary Sean Duffy’s first act after being sworn in Tuesday was signing a memorandum that the administration says would lower the price of American car ownership and eliminate former President Joe Biden’s electric vehicle mandate.

The memo directs the offices of the General Counsel and Undersecretary for Policy and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to immediately initiate a rulemaking to rescind or replace all existing Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards.

On his first day in office, President Donald Trump issued an executive order to eliminate the EV mandate” to promote “true” consumer choice, which, it says, is essential for economic growth and innovation.

Biden outlined a plan for 50% of new passenger vehicles to be zero-emission vehicles by 2030 in a 2021 executive order. He rolled back the plan during his election campaign. 

Under Biden’s administration, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released new standards to reduce carbon emissions last April. The current rule requires all passenger cars and light trucks to meet a standard of 50.4 miles per gallon in model year 2031

It also calls for the termination of state emissions waivers, which allowed states to adopt zero-emission vehicle mandates that followed California’s Advanced Clean Cars II program. The Alliance for Automotive Innovation (Auto Innovators) recently said it would take a miracle for major automakers to meet the mandates. 

In a press release, USDOT noted, per data from Cox Automotive, that between March 2021 and March 2024, the cost to purchase a new vehicle increased by 15.5% from an average of $40,881 to an average of $47,218.”

The release states that the current rule “has dramatically increased the average price of a new car to nearly $48,000, driving up the cost and making it unaffordable for American consumers.”

“The price of a car has continued to spiral,” the release says. “In March 2024, of the 275 new vehicle models available for purchase, only eight had transaction prices below $25,000. By comparison in March 2021, more than 20 vehicles had transaction prices below $25,000.”

Duffy touted Trump’s “vision to usher in a golden age of transportation” and said his memorandum “specifically reduces the burdensome and overly restrictive fuel standards that have needlessly driven up the cost of a car in order to push a radical Green New Deal agenda,” according to the release.

“The American people should not be forced to sacrifice choice and affordability when purchasing a new car,” Duffy said.

In other federal action on Tuesday, EPA announced the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has assigned it with the first stage of recovery and cleanup of the Los Angeles County wildfires, which includes the disposal of lithium-ion batteries found in EVs and hybrid vehicles.

The move is the result of a Jan. 24 executive order that directs the EPA to complete its hazardous materials mission to respond to the Los Angeles fires as soon as practical.

Removing hazardous materials is Phase 1 of the federal cleanup response.

“According to the EPA incident commander, there will be upward of 1,000 people working on Phase 1 cleanup by this weekend,” an EPA press release states. “This work, conducted at no cost to residents, is a mandatory process to ensure the safety of residents and the workers who will — after the hazardous material is gone — conduct the Phase 2 debris removal in the burn footprints, and to prevent these materials from being released into the environment.”

Phase 2 will be coordinated by FEMA and begin automatically at each property when the first phase is completed.

EPA listed paints, cleaning supplies, automotive oils, herbicides, pesticides, batteries, propane tanks, and other pressurized gas containers as potentially hazardous items that will be removed. Visible asbestos and lithium-ion batteries from vehicles, homes, and other products will also be removed.

“After a fire, these products require special handling, especially if their containers are damaged,” the release states. “Many homes have damaged or destroyed lithium-ion batteries, lithium-ion battery energy storage systems, and electric and hybrid vehicles. The batteries should be considered extremely dangerous, even if they look intact. Lithium-ion batteries can spontaneously re-ignite, explode, and emit toxic gases and particulates even after the fire is out.”

Residents are encouraged to call the EPA’s hotline at 1-833-798-7372 if they encounter a lithium-ion battery while re-entering their property or are unsure if a lithium-ion battery was damaged.

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