Automotion
Hot wheels
The new head of the EPA puts his foot down on overturning Obama-era guidelines on vehicle efficiency.
Andrew Wheeler, the new acting head of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), is intent, it seems, on continuing the brief but controversial legacy of his scandal-hit predecessor Scott Pruitt, who resigned last month. Among Wheeler’s first major aims, announced yesterday, is to ease regulations on how much pollution US-made cars emit. The EPA wants to lock current vehicle-efficiency standards – that is, the number of miles to the gallon for an engine – from 2020 to 2026. Obama-era guidelines had slated 2020 for a further tightening of the legislation but Wheeler claims that would raise the cost of car-manufacturing. The proposal, which the EPA wants to rollout federally, will irk California and the 13 other states that set their own fuel-efficiency standards, rules that are, on the whole, more stringent than the national ones. One thing is for certain: Wheeler’s opponents will exhaust all options before accepting the new legislation.