Will the horrific NYC floods force a change to Biden’s fuel economy rules 2030

Will the horrific NYC floods force a change to Biden’s fuel economy rules 2030

Will the horrific NYC floods force a change to Biden’s new fuel economy rules. We have all seen the floods in New York, the destruction of Hurricane Ida and the Wildfires in California, If anyone didn’t believe it before, climate change is here, the time to act is now.

President Joe Biden wants to make an impact, apparently not just in Afghanistan, but also on climate change. He has started by erasing Donald Trump’s rollback of automobile pollution and fuel economy standards.

The moves are part of Biden’s plan to fight climate change by persuading people to swap their gas-powered vehicles for those that run on electricity. In short, Biden aims to update fuel economy regulations to replace SAFE rules from the Trump era.

His new proposed new rules unveiled a nonbinding deal with most automakers to have an electric, plug-in hybrid or hydrogen-electric vehicles make up half of their US sales by 2030. Consumer Reports calculates that the new standards will deliver 75 per cent of the emissions cuts from the original Obama standards because of delays caused by Trump and loopholes.

What will the new fuel economy rules do?

The impact of these rules will be to return pollution and gas mileage requirements close to those adopted when Barack Obama was president. The Obama standards required the fleet of new vehicles to average 5 per cent in carbon dioxide emissions cuts every model year through 2025.

Trump rolled that back to 1.5 % per year and added another year to the rules. Biden’s plan requires 10 per cent emissions reductions in 2023 and 5% every year after that through 2026. Trump’s standards ended with the fleet averaging about 29 miles per gallon (mpg) in real-world driving.

The Biden rule should be close to the Obama mileage requirement, about 37mpg. But well before Biden was elected, automakers already were headed toward a similar sales goal, developing more electric vehicles (EVs) especially after the success of global sales leader Tesla.

Will they help with climate change?

They come in the wake of massive shifts in climate policy globally. And are designed to tackle an acute problem that has warmed oceans and spawned the storms, wildfires and floods we have seen in Europe, and Hurricane Ida and most recently the destruction in New York’s NYC floods.

Although environmental groups say the changes are not moving fast enough, some have welcomed the rollback. They have also pointed to the fact that the reversal does not make up for the increased emissions during the Trump years, and bemoan credits that will let automakers offset gas-guzzling vehicles. Some say there should be a plan to phase out gasoline passenger vehicles entirely by 2030.

The end of the Fast and Furious saga?

The Environmental Protection Agency says over the years its proposal will save about 200 billion gallons of gasoline and cut about 2bn metric tonnes of carbon pollution. That’s nearly three times the amount that autos emit in a year.

Additionally, If automakers sell more electric vehicles, that could cut emissions as well, although the precise benefit depends on the fuel used to generate electricity that charges them.

Is this the death of the muscle car? 

After the release of F9, some of you will probably wish to see the end of the Fast and Furious franchise, but this is not going to do it. Although the standards come close to matching the Obama requirements, they allow for offsetting, which means companies like Ford can continue to make muscle cars and add a further premium to them and offset the carbon tax with a push of Electric vehicles.

https://twitter.com/TimothyGoetsch1/status/1433675650171211776

If Joe Biden wants to get tougher he could remove the offsetting on big trucks and SUVs and forced car makers to make carbon-neutral alternatives. That likely will force automakers to make electric or hybrid versions of their thirstier models, but it probably won’t cancel them.

Is F9 The last one? No, sadly not, Vin Diesel says Fast 11 will be the last film in the franchise. So F9 was supposed to be setting up whatever the franchise’s endgame will be, but it will be without the Rock. The question on everyone’s lips is … will the franchise go electric?

Will we get a fully functioning Electric pick-up anytime soon?

The car manufacturers agreements aren’t legally binding, so there’s no requirement to comply, apart from tax incentives. The Motor industry has said it can meet the goals but only if the US government spends big on charging stations and brings in incentives and subsidies to encourage people to buy Electric Vehicles. This will be Biden’s next task; getting Congress to approve funding.

……………………………