The EPA’s decision last week to repeal the 2009 endangerment finding establishing that greenhouse gas emissions are air pollutants harmful to public health will have immediate impacts on vehicle tailpipe emissions limits and start-stop technology incentives.
That finding, which required the agency to regulate the emissions as air pollutants posing a public health threat under its Clean Air Act authority, later became the basis for subsequent tailpipe emissions standards.
The EPA also said the rollback would benefit auto manufacturers in ways that consumers don’t necessarily see. Greenhouse gas testing and measurement; reporting and certification; and banking and trading provisions specific to greenhouse gas emissions would go away.
