LEILA FADEL, HOST:
The Environmental Protection Agency says reducing greenhouse gases is none of its business.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
This is a big deal. The EPA threw out the legal basis for its climate regulations, including rules for cars and trucks. For years up to now, the EPA has regulated planet-warming emissions because climate change hurts human health, among other things.
FADEL: NPR's Camila Domonoske covers the auto industry and joins us now. Good morning, Camila.
CAMILA DOMONOSKE, BYLINE: Good morning, Leila.
FADEL: So start with laying out what exactly the administration has done here.
DOMONOSKE: They have rescinded the Endangerment Finding, which is the sort of bureaucratic but very important document from 2009. And it says, look, scientists know that climate change endangers human health. There's overwhelming consensus on that. And therefore, the EPA should regulate greenhouse gas emissions as part of its job, the same way that it regulates smog. And now the EPA has undone that, saying instead that if Congress wants it to regulate greenhouse gases, then they need to pass a law that does that specifically, which is not very likely right now. So greenhouse gas emissions standards for cars and trucks are now gone. We should be clear that this is going to spark a giant legal battle, which will probably eventually go to the Supreme Court.
FADEL: So what does this mean for drivers?
DOMONOSKE: Well, more specifically for people buying new cars, right? One change that President Trump highlighted in particular - this removes the regulatory incentive for the start-stop feature a lot of new cars have that...
FADEL: OK.
DOMONOSKE: ...Turns engines off when you're stopped at a red light. More fundamentally, this will mean fewer EVs and hybrids on dealer lots in the near term. Companies are not going to be under the same pressure to make cleaner vehicles that they were under strict Biden-era EPA emissions rules. For carmakers, this doesn't necessarily change their long-term plans because, one, they know that regulations could change again under a different administration, right? And globally, you know, they sell cars worldwide. Other countries still have emissions rules. They also have to compete with Chinese EVs, and a lot of executives still say that EVs are the future. But in the near term, they can sell as many big gas and diesel trucks and SUVs as they want with no penalty. Trump also says that this will save Americans a lot of money. EVs are expensive. But third-party analyses say that this change will actually cost drivers because we will collectively buy more gasoline.
FADEL: Did the auto industry want these rules eliminated?
DOMONOSKE: Well, big cars and trucks are very profitable, so rolling back these rules is a boost to bottom lines. It's actually partially offsetting the billions of dollars that companies are paying in tariffs. And a lot of companies had been warning that these Biden-era rules were simply not realistic - that EV sales in the U.S. were not growing fast enough, even with incentives in place, to meet those targets. So the traditional automakers wanted easier rules, for sure. But eliminating the regulations entirely, arguing that the EPA doesn't even have the right to regulate them - that is farther than the industry wanted to go, and that's because a huge legal battle means a ton of uncertainty. And companies would really prefer some stability in these regulations, although that's starting to seem like wishful thinking at this point.
FADEL: NPR's Camila Domonoske. Thank you, Camila.
DOMONOSKE: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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