A brief analysis of the impact of EPA budget cuts on automakers and emissions testing

According to foreign media (http://www.hybridcars.com) reporter Sami Haj-Assaad, in order to save money for the federal government, Trump may significantly cut the budget of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), especially the funds allocated to vehicle exhaust emissions testing projects. This means that the EPA will lay off employees and may even outsource exhaust emissions testing to automakers in exchange for high revenues, and major automakers may adopt China's emission standards.

EPA Budget Cuts

The EPA's budget this year is only $8.14 billion, a nearly 20% cut from the 2010 budget. The newly appointed EPA Administrator, Scott Pruitt, is trying to cut the budget by nearly 30%, with the argument that budget cuts will help lower taxes, but there are two things that need to be clarified first: 1. The functions of the EPA 2. What consequences will the budget cuts trigger?

If the EPA budget is cut, the automotive industry will be affected, especially the light vehicle exhaust emission testing and fuel economy testing. The EPA's automotive laboratory is located in Ann Arbor, Mich., and the agency is responsible for vehicle exhaust emission testing to ensure that all types of vehicles produced by automakers meet the current U.S. exhaust emission standards. If automakers want to obtain the right to sell cars in the United States, their vehicles must pass the agency's testing, meet the EPA's relevant standards, and obtain approval documents from the agency.

Since the EPA cannot conduct comprehensive inspections on all vehicles, the agency recommends that automakers provide relevant data on exhaust emissions and fuel economy on their own, but the test data must be true, and the test procedures used by major automakers must be consistent with the EPA's current procedures. The EPA will select 15-20% of the vehicles for spot checks to ensure that the automakers' test procedures are correct and there is no concealment. If there are user complaints, consumer groups or advocacy organizations claiming that the actual indicators of the vehicle are inconsistent with the data reported by the automaker, the EPA will conduct a more in-depth investigation on its own.

Budget cuts would seem to be an effective way to shut down unnecessary experimental equipment and also help to eradicate various problems that existed previously, but what is the reality?

Cases of car companies violating regulations

Due to inaccurate information provided, Ford was forced to adjust the fuel economy data of six of its models in 2013 and 2014. Taking the C-Max model as an example, when Ford's advertising content was proven to be false, consumers sued it for misleading advertising and received compensation of $1,050 per vehicle.

Hyundai and Kia also overstated the fuel economy of several of their models, exceeding the EPA's fuel economy test guidelines. The two automakers were fined $300 million and provided $412 million in compensation to customers.

The most notorious event for the EPA's tailpipe emissions test was the Volkswagen "Emissions Gate" scandal, in which Volkswagen installed illegal (cheating) software on its test vehicles to help its vehicles pass the tailpipe emissions test. It is estimated that in the next few years, Volkswagen will have to spend nearly $20 billion to replace the high-polluting vehicles on the road and work to restore the polluted air quality, and pay high compensation to users for its illegal behavior.

Diesel-powered Jeep and Ram vehicles are under investigation for violations of the Clean Air Act, and Mercedes-Benz is also under investigation for diesel vehicles, which are not licensed for sale in the U.S. for the 2017 model year.

The above incidents show that the EPA is committed to enforcing tailpipe emission regulations to ensure that automakers do not dare to risk launching high-polluting vehicles that exceed emission standards. However, if funding is cut, it means that major automakers can easily cheat the testing system by outsourcing testing. After all, not all automakers are trustworthy and cannot be expected to provide test results that are in line with the facts.

EPA charges automakers for outsourcing testing

If the EPA budget is cut, the laboratory itself may become an empty shell. There are currently 304 full-time positions involved in vehicle exhaust emission testing and certification, and 168 positions will be forced to be eliminated after the budget cut. At present, this does not mean that the EPA will be abolished and its testing equipment will be removed. It may only mean that the EPA's operating scale will be greatly reduced, and testing may be outsourced to automakers.

If the testing outsourcing plan is adopted, the EPA will receive high fees from automakers and engine manufacturers, but it is still under negotiation. Surprisingly, the progress of the negotiations is surprisingly fast. The interval between the two decisions of EPA budget cuts and increasing fees from automakers is so short that people are worried that this will delay the vehicle certification process and automakers will not be able to provide vehicles to users in time. Why would automakers prefer to complete the vehicle testing themselves and pay high fees to the EPA? The answer is simple-if the EPA cannot obtain certification, the automakers will not be able to sell their vehicles in the United States at all.

Testing standards - or "abandoning the United States and using China"

One thing that has to be considered carefully is that automakers around the world use different testing standards and are likely to choose the market with the largest volume of vehicles and adopt the corresponding emission standards of that market. China is undoubtedly the world's largest auto market, which means that major automakers may adopt China's emission standards and abandon the current US standards. Dave Sullivan, an analyst at AutoPacific, said: "The Chinese market is huge and they are also trying clean energy vehicles. I don't think major automakers will stop developing new technologies to improve fuel economy or stop using catalytic converters. Now that more and more powertrain products have been promoted globally, we will continue to focus on the European market and the Chinese market. In these markets, 1.5-liter engines are very common because there is a market for such products in China. Why did Ford consider changing from a 1.6-liter EcoBoost to a 1.5-liter engine? The answer is that there is demand in the Chinese market."

It is critical to adopt objective tests (standards) to ensure that automakers are responsible for the products they launch. Although the argument that greenhouse gases cause climate change is still questioned, there is no doubt that vehicle exhaust does pollute air quality and harm our health. If the EPA loses the ability to test vehicles on its own, users may actually feel the huge difference between automakers' advertisements and actual use, just in terms of fuel economy.

There are still many questions to be answered, and the EPA budget plan will be finalized in May this year and detailed information will be released. In summary, it seems that cutting the EPA budget will not only involve layoffs and cost cuts, but will also cause many problems.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.