General Motors on Wednesday told the Biden administration that it would agree to tighter federal fuel economy and tailpipe pollution rules, along the lines of what California has already agreed to with five other auto companies. <\/p>\n
The move is a step by the nation\u2019s largest automaker away from its position during the Trump administration, when G.M.\u2019s chief executive officer, Mary Barra, asked President Donald J. Trump to relax Obama-era auto pollution rules. <\/p>\n
President Biden is seeking to reinstate those restrictions as part of his efforts to cut climate-warming pollution, and he hopes to propose new draft auto pollution rules as soon as next month.<\/p>\n
Ms. Barra stopped short of endorsing Mr. Biden\u2019s desire to fully reimpose or strengthen the Obama-era auto pollution standards, which to date stand as the strongest policy ever imposed by the federal government to fight climate change. And she also asked the administration to augment the federal rules with provisions that would give incentives to auto companies that are investing in electric vehicles, although she did not specify what those incentives should be. <\/span><\/p>\n Just weeks after Mr. Biden\u2019s election, Ms. Barra dropped her company\u2019s support of the Trump administration\u2019s efforts to nullify California\u2019s rules on tailpipe emissions. And days after the new president\u2019s inauguration, she announced that after 2035 her company would sell only vehicles that have zero emissions, a target in line with Mr. Biden\u2019s pledge to cut the United States\u2019 emissions 50 percent from 2005 levels by 2030. <\/p>\n This week, in a letter to Michael Regan, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, Ms. Barra wrote, \u201cG.M. supports the emissions reduction goals of California through model year \u201926,\u201d adding, \u201cthe auto industry is embarking upon a profound transition as we do our part to achieve the country\u2019s climate commitments.\u201d<\/p>\n The Obama-era climate rules, which G.M. sought to loosen, required automakers to build vehicles by 2025 that achieve an average fuel economy of 54.5 miles per gallon. The rules would have eliminated about six billion tons of planet-warming carbon dioxide pollution over the lifetime of the vehicles. Mr. Trump rolled back Mr. Obama\u2019s standards from 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025 to 40 miles per gallon and revoked California\u2019s legal authority to set its own state-level standard.<\/p>\n California reached a separate deal with Honda, Ford, Volkswagen, BMW and Volvo under which they would be required to increase their average fuel economy to about 51 miles per gallon by 2026.<\/p>\n