Biden Administration Faces Stark Choice on Its Biggest Climate Policy

The UN’s Climate Change Conference is just about to kick off in Dubai, juxtaposing the powerful political power of the fossil fuel industry and the desperate need to reduce oil and gas usage as we face an ongoing climate crisis. With the petroleum-dominated transportation sector the leading source of heat-trapping emissions in the United States, it’s a great opportunity to look at the Biden administration’s progress on cleaning up passenger cars and trucks and what we should look for in the coming year.

This year, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) proposed new emissions and fuel economy standards (respectively) for model year 2027-2032 passenger cars and light trucks (sedans, utility vehicles, pickups, etc.). We expect those rules to be finalized early next year, and automakers have been pushing the…