House Panel Clears Bill to Stop EPA from Regulating Vehicle Emissions

Washington DC March 14, 2011; The AIADA newsletter reported that house committee on Tuesday cleared a bill to block the EPA from regulating greenhouse gas emissions, including vehicles from the 2017-2025 model years – sending it to the House floor.

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.), a sponsor of the legislation, said it "would prevent prices from going up." According to Automotive News, the bill is to go before the Republican-led House in the next couple of weeks, and lawmakers predicted it would pass.

However, Rep. Henry Waxman of California, the senior Democrat on the committee, said the legislation would die in the Democratic-controlled Senate. Talks are under way among the EPA, the Department of Transportation, automakers, the state of California, and environmental groups to set new fuel economy and tailpipe-emission standards after the current program expires for 2016 cars and light trucks.

The legislation would leave NHTSA as the sole federal participant in negotiations aimed at continuing a single national fuel-economy program. Automakers have long favored a unified program to avoid having to meet a patchwork of state and federal targets.