GAS MONEY Saved Act

II 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 1022 To clarify the effect of certain final rules and determinations of the Environ- mental Protection Agency relating to greenhouse gas emissions standards for light-duty vehicles. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES APRIL 3, 2019 Mr. MARKEY (for himself, Mrs. FEINSTEIN, Ms. HARRIS, Ms. WARREN, Mr. BLUMENTHAL, Mr. VAN HOLLEN, Mr. BOOKER, Mr. MENENDEZ, Mrs. GILLIBRAND, Mr. MERKLEY, Mr. WYDEN, Mr. WHITEHOUSE, Mr. REED, Mr. SANDERS, Mr. LEAHY, Mr. BENNET, Ms. SMITH, and Ms. KLO- BUCHAR) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Environment and Public Works A BILL To clarify the effect of certain final rules and determinations of the Environmental Protection Agency relating to greenhouse gas emissions standards for light-duty vehi- cles. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Greener Air Standards 4 Mean Our National Security, Environment, and Youth 5 Saved Act’’ or the ‘‘GAS MONEY Saved Act’’. 6 VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:38 Apr 09, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1022.IS S1022 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 2 •S 1022 IS SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 1 Congress finds that— 2 (1) in 2009, the National Highway Traffic 3 Safety Administration of the Department of Trans- 4 portation and the Environmental Protection Agency 5 reached an historic agreement with State regulators, 6 automakers, the International Union, United Auto- 7 mobile, Aerospace, and Agricultural Implement 8 Workers of America, and leaders in the environ- 9 mental community to establish a program of Federal 10 standards, known as ‘‘One National Program’’, to 11 reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase cor- 12 porate average fuel economy for light-duty vehicles, 13 in cooperation and alignment with the California Air 14 Resources Board; 15 (2) in 2012, as part of One National Pro- 16 gram— 17 (A) the Environmental Protection Agency 18 established final greenhouse gas emissions 19 standards for vehicles of model years 2017 20 through 2025; and 21 (B) the National Highway Traffic Safety 22 Administration established final— 23 (i) corporate average fuel economy 24 standards for vehicles of model years 2017 25 through 2021; and 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:38 Apr 09, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1022.IS S1022 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 3 •S 1022 IS (ii) augural standards for vehicles of 1 model years 2022 through 2025; 2 (3)(A) the standards described in paragraph (2) 3 are based on the specific footprint of vehicles for the 4 purposes of— 5 (i) providing automotive manufacturers 6 flexibility; and 7 (ii) ensuring that consumers have a choice 8 of a full range of vehicle sizes to meet their 9 needs; and 10 (B) under that footprint-based system, small 11 vehicles are required to meet more stringent stand- 12 ards than large vehicles; 13 (4) the Environmental Protection Agency, to- 14 gether with the National Highway Traffic Safety 15 Administration and the California Air Resources 16 Board, jointly published a robust research and anal- 17 ysis document, known as the ‘‘Technical Assessment 18 Report’’, that clearly demonstrated that the existing 19 standards are technically feasible and cost-effective; 20 (5) in January 2017, the Environmental Pro- 21 tection Agency issued a final determination to main- 22 tain the existing greenhouse gas emissions standards 23 for vehicles of model years 2022 through 2025, as 24 prescribed by the final rule described in paragraph 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:38 Apr 09, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1022.IS S1022 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 4 •S 1022 IS (2)(A), noting that the standards could have been 1 strengthened but were not, in order to ensure cer- 2 tainty for the automobile manufacturers; 3 (6) on April 13, 2018, the Environmental Pro- 4 tection Agency issued a new final determination en- 5 titled ‘‘Mid-Term Evaluation of Greenhouse Gas 6 Emissions Standards for Model Year 2022–2025 7 Light-Duty Vehicles’’ (83 Fed. Reg. 16077), 8 which— 9 (A) rejected an extensive technical record 10 that— 11 (i) includes more than 2,000 pages; 12 and 13 (ii) was created through— 14 (I) a research period of 8 years; 15 (II) a review of several hundred 16 published reports; 17 (III) hundreds of stakeholder 18 meetings; and 19 (IV) multiple opportunities for 20 public comment; 21 (B) failed— 22 (i) to take into consideration extensive 23 peer-reviewed publications, including from 24 the technical staff of the Environmental 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:38 Apr 09, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1022.IS S1022 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 5 •S 1022 IS Protection Agency, demonstrating the abil- 1 ity of automobile manufacturers to meet 2 the standards described in paragraph (2) 3 through model year 2025; and 4 (ii) to provide evidence to refute the 5 findings contained in the final determina- 6 tion of the Environmental Protection 7 Agency entitled ‘‘Final Determination on 8 the Appropriateness of the Model Year 9 2022–2025 Light-Duty Vehicle Greenhouse 10 Gas Emissions Standards under the Mid- 11 term Evaluation’’ and dated January 12, 12 2017, that— 13 (I) automobile manufacturers are 14 well-positioned, and have a wide range 15 of technology pathways available, to 16 meet the standards described in para- 17 graph (2) at lower cost than pre- 18 viously estimated; and 19 (II) although the technical record 20 indicated that those standards could 21 be made more stringent, maintaining 22 the standards would provide regu- 23 latory certainty for the automobile in- 24 dustry; and 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:38 Apr 09, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1022.IS S1022 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 6 •S 1022 IS (C) was not based on a complete technical 1 review of the evidence, but was an attack on the 2 largest climate policy in effect on the date of 3 the final determination; and 4 (7) on August 24, 2018, the Environmental 5 Protection Agency and the National Highway Traf- 6 fic Safety Administration issued a notice of proposed 7 rulemaking entitled ‘‘The Safer Affordable Fuel-Ef- 8 ficient (SAFE) Vehicles Rule for Model Years 2021– 9 2026 Passenger Cars and Light Trucks’’ (83 Fed. 10 Reg. 42817) (referred to in this section as the ‘‘No- 11 tice’’), which included a preferred alternative that 12 would— 13 (A) freeze the light-duty fuel economy 14 standards and greenhouse gas emissions stand- 15 ards at model year 2020 levels, with no year- 16 over-year improvement through model year 17 2026; 18 (B) result in no improvement in vehicle 19 greenhouse gas emissions standards during the 20 period of 2018 through 2026, when considered 21 together with an additional proposal to elimi- 22 nate hydrofluorocarbon compliance credits; 23 (C) result in— 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:38 Apr 09, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1022.IS S1022 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 7 •S 1022 IS (i) an estimated light-duty fleet fuel 1 economy of approximately 37 miles per 2 gallon; and 3 (ii) a carbon dioxide emissions stand- 4 ard of approximately 240 grams per mile 5 during calendar year 2026; and 6 (D) as compared to existing standards— 7 (i) increase domestic oil consumption 8 by not less than 500,000 barrels of oil per 9 day by the early 2030s, according to the 10 Notice; 11 (ii) produce an additional 12 2,200,000,000 metric tons of global warm- 13 ing emissions by January 1, 2040; 14 (iii) cost consumers $55,000,000,000 15 in additional gasoline costs in calendar 16 year 2040; and 17 (iv) decrease the jobs in the auto- 18 motive industry by 60,000 during calendar 19 year 2030, according to the Notice. 20 SEC. 3. GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS STANDARDS FOR 21 LIGHT-DUTY VEHICLES. 22 (a) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding the notice of the 23 Environmental Protection Agency entitled ‘‘Mid-Term 24 Evaluation of Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standards for 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:38 Apr 09, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1022.IS S1022 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 8 •S 1022 IS Model Year 2022–2025 Light-Duty Vehicles’’ (83 Fed. 1 Reg. 16077 (April 13, 2018)) and the notice of proposed 2 rulemaking of the Environmental Protection Agency and 3 the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration enti- 4 tled ‘‘The Safer Affordable Fuel-Efficient (SAFE) Vehi- 5 cles Rule for Model Years 2021–2026 Passenger Cars and 6 Light Trucks’’ (83 Fed. Reg. 42817 (August 24, 2018)), 7 the following shall have the force and effect of law: 8 (1) The final rule of the Environmental Protec- 9 tion Agency and the National Highway Traffic Safe- 10 ty Administration entitled ‘‘2017 and Later Model 11 Year Light-Duty Vehicle Greenhouse Gas Emissions 12 and Corporate Average Fuel Economy Standards’’ 13 (77 Fed. Reg. 62624 (October 15, 2012)) (as in ef- 14 fect on April 1, 2018). 15 (2) The final determination of the Environ- 16 mental Protection Agency entitled ‘‘Final Deter- 17 mination on the Appropriateness of the Model Year 18 2022–2025 Light-Duty Vehicle Greenhouse Gas 19 Emissions Standards under the Midterm Evalua- 20 tion’’ and dated January 12, 2017 (as in effect on 21 April 1, 2018). 22 (b) LIMITATION ON CERTAIN ACTIONS.—The Admin- 23 istrator of the Environmental Protection Agency may not 24 issue any rule or take any action that would effectively 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:38 Apr 09, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1022.IS S1022 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 9 •S 1022 IS reduce the stringency of greenhouse gas emissions stand- 1 ards required to be attained by each fleet of light-duty 2 vehicles manufactured for sale in the United States 3 through calendar year 2025 pursuant to the regulation de- 4 scribed in subsection (a)(1), as affirmed by the final deter- 5 mination described in subsection (a)(2). 6 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:38 Apr 09, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S1022.IS S1022 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS