EPA – Page 9

July 5, 2018

Wheeler replaces Pruitt as EPA chief, climate denial, fossil fuel support continue apace

Following an 18-month tenure filled with a cascade of scandals, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt resigned Thursday. President Donald Trump acknowledged Pruitt's resignation in a tweet and announced that EPA Deputy Administrator Andrew Wheeler will run the agency in the interim, starting Monday. Pruitt was known most for his denial of climate change...

June 28, 2018

Supreme Court retirement could have impact on environmental protection

The announced retirement Wednesday of Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy could have dramatic and detrimental effects on environmental quality. Since the retirement of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor in 2006, Kennedy has been a pivotal vote on the court, siding with the majority on at least two crucial rulings to expand the reach of the EPA. The...

June 22, 2018

EPA loses 10 percent of enforcement staff under Trump

If the EPA wants to reduce federal involvement in environmental protection, it may not need to roll back emissions requirements or cancel California's environmental waiver. It could just quit enforcing the law. That is already happening to a degree, according to new data from Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, as reported in The...

May 13, 2018

Automakers play high-stakes CARB game to earn zero emissions vehicle credits

Editor's note: Green Car Reports covers a lot of electric cars—and there are a lot more to cover these days, thanks to California's complex requirements that major automakers produce zero emissions vehicles for sale. For fans of clean cars—as well as opponents—it's difficult to understand how many plug-in cars the state requires...

April 24, 2018

How high should fuel-economy standards be set? Take our Twitter poll

In light of the EPA Administrator Scott Priutt reversing the Agency's decision to maintain tighter emissions standards from 2022 to 2025, it seemed time to ask for our audience's opinion. Since 2009, the EPA emissions standards have had a direct effect on fuel economy standards and have been coordinated with the National Highway Traffic Safety...

April 16, 2018

Carmakers want emission, CAFE tweaks, not huge rollbacks, but won’t say so publicly

As promised, the Trump administration has embarked on regulatory rollbacks across many fronts, some immediate and others taking longer. It remains unclear whether the EPA's plan to loosen carbon-dioxide emission limits for 2022 through 2025 vehicles will survive inevitable court challenges. However, despite shrill rhetoric from environmental...

April 12, 2018

Deal between EPA, California on auto emissions may still be possible

Over the many months EPA administrator Scott Pruitt signaled his intention to revisit the Obama administration's emission limits for 2022 through 2025 vehicles, California warned that it would not go along with any reductions. The state has been allowed to set its own emission standards for decades, it noted, and it has every intention of sticking...

April 10, 2018

EPA does not set fuel-economy limits: get this right, journalists!

Journalism as an industry is under great pressure these days. There are far more people writing "content" than in past decades, and in general they are having to produce more of it for less money than they did 10, 20, or 50 years ago. That's no excuse, however, for getting the basics wrong. DON'T MISS: Hey, media, get it straight: "electrified" is...

April 9, 2018

Pruitt’s EPA emission rollback reasoning may well fail in court

Despite the sturm und drang around the announcement by embattled EPA chief Scott Pruitt that he will relax emission limits for 2022 through 2025 vehicles, not much will happen immediately. His determination last week that the Obama administration was "incorrect" and that the limits on those vehicles weren't needed kicks off a lengthy process of...

April 6, 2018

Pruitt’s EPA decision: 38-page intention vs 1,217 pages of analysis

While the name of EPA administrator Scott Pruitt is often preceded by "embattled" these days, his agency is now on record as rejecting its own recommendation of just 16 months ago. It concluded in July 2016 that the auto industry had handily met lower carbon-emission limits from 2012 through 2017—at lower cost and with more conventional...