EPA Eliminates Credits for Auto Start-Stop Feature in Cars

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ended a greenhouse gas credit program that incentivized auto manufacturers to include automatic start-stop systems in vehicles, the agency said in a Feb. 12 statement.

“EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin eliminated the off-cycle credit that was used to implement the almost universally hated start-stop feature in American vehicles,” said the statement. The off-cycle credit was created by the Obama administration in 2012, allowing automakers to claim greenhouse gas (GHG) credits by adding features such as a start-stop system.

Start-stop systems automatically shut down the vehicle’s engine during periods of idleness, such as waiting at red lights. Due to the credit program, start-stop systems became a standard feature in vehicles.

However, “this feature has proven to be nothing more than a regulatory loophole that allowed automakers to claim GHG credits without delivering real-world emission reductions or benefits to human health,” according to the agency.

EPA said this technology has led to frustration among drivers, and since almost 60 percent of new cars come with start-stop systems, consumers have limited choice to avoid this feature.

With the off-cycle credits now eliminated, auto manufacturers will be incentivized to listen to what Americans “actually want in their cars,” the agency said.

The decision to eliminate the credit is a result of Zeldin signing a final rule on Thursday that ended the Obama-era 2009 Greenhouse Gas Endangerment Finding.

Endangerment Finding

The Endangerment Finding regulated greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles and provided the legal foundation for many climate regulations.

The EPA stated that climate rules impose major costs on the traditional manufacturing sector and limit people’s choices when it comes to having affordable car options. The agency sent a proposal to reconsider the Endangerment Finding to the Office of Management and Budget last month.

“Not only do many people find start-stop annoying, but it kills the battery of your car without any significant benefit to the environment,” Zeldin said.

“Automakers should not be forced to adopt or rewarded for technologies that are merely a climate participation trophy with no measurable pollution reductions,” he added, highlighting broader consumer choice expected from the policy change.

According to the EPA’s 2009 Endangerment Finding, greenhouse gases threaten public health and the welfare of the American people.

GHGs can lead to “hotter, longer heat waves that threaten the health of the sick, poor or elderly; increases in ground-level ozone pollution linked to asthma and other respiratory illnesses; as well as other threats to the health and welfare of Americans,” EPA said then.

Environmental group Sierra Club criticized the EPA’s decision to end the Endangerment Finding in a Feb. 12 statement, calling it a “brazen assault” on the health and welfare of Americans.

“Removing EPA’s authority to limit deadly greenhouse gas emissions is as shortsighted as it is reckless,” Sierra Club executive director Loren Blackford said. “Communities will suffer as extreme weather continues to threaten us all, costs will continue to rise, and we will saddle future generations with a world that grows increasingly unlivable and endangers the life we know.”

Lowering Car Prices

President Donald Trump said on Thursday that the repeal of the Endangerment Finding was “crippling restrictions” that were a major factor in driving up car prices.

This was a “disastrous Obama-era policy that severely damaged the American auto industry,” Trump said. The repeal also terminates all additional greenhouse standards imposed as a result on vehicle models and engines between 2012 and 2027, and beyond.

During a Feb. 10 press briefing, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that “this will be the largest deregulatory action in American history, and it will save the American people $1.3 trillion in crushing regulations.”

According to Leavitt, the savings are expected to come in the form of lower automobile costs, with reductions averaging roughly $2,400 per vehicle.

In a Feb. 12 statement, the Specialty Equipment Market Association applauded the repeal.

The update unleashes “innovation in a significant segment of the automotive aftermarket industry that is entirely dependent on ICE technology,” the group said, referring to internal combustion engines.

“That segment, which has a $100 billion annual economic impact and employs more than 330,000 Americans, is now free to rely on free-market solutions to our emissions challenges.”