Hill Heat

The Subcommittee on Environment, Manufacturing, and Critical Materials has scheduled a hearing on Thursday, June 22, 2023, at 10:00 a.m. (ET) in 2123 Rayburn House Office Building. The title of the hearing is “Driving Affordability: Preserving People’s Freedom to Buy Affordable Vehicles and Fuel.”

Hearing memo

Legislation to be discussed:

• H.R. 1435, The Preserving Choice in Vehicle Purchases Act (Rep. John Joyce)
• H.R. 3337, The Fuels Parity Act (Rep. Miller-Meeks)
• H.R. ___, The Choice in Automobile Retail Sales Act of 2023
• H.R. __, The No Fuel Credits for Batteries Act of 2023

Witnesses:

Panel One

• Joseph Goffman, Principal Deputy Administrator, Office of Air and Radiation, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Panel Two

• Chet Thompson, President and CEO, American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers
• Neil Caskey, CEO, National Corn Growers Association
• Scott Lambert, President, Minnesota Auto Dealers Association
• Genevieve Cullen, President, Electric Drive Transportation Association

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) and Environment, Manufacturing, and Critical Materials Subcommittee Chair Bill Johnson (R-OH) released the following statement:

“Americans need affordable, reliable transportation to get to work, take their children to school, go to the doctor, and live their lives. Today, however, people are struggling to afford some of the highest energy and auto prices in decades as a result of Biden’s energy and inflation crisis. His rush-to-green policies are hurting middle- and low-income families the most. The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) recent regulatory efforts to advance this radical agenda, particularly on the kind of cars Americans can drive and the fuels they can use, risk further disrupting fuel markets and increasing transportation costs. We look forward to holding this hearing with EPA officials and stakeholders to discuss how we can increase—not limit—people’s choices and access to reliable, affordable transportation fuels and vehicles.”

H.R. 1435 amends CAA section 209(b)—the conditions under which EPA can grant a waiver to a State (i.e., California) for a motor vehicle emissions standard. Specifically, H.R. 1435 adds an additional requirement that must be satisfied for EPA to provide a State a waiver for its vehicle emissions standards: the State directive cannot “directly or indirectly” limit the sale or use of new motor vehicles with an ICE. H.R. 1435 also prevents EPA from considering State standards amended after the date of enactment of this bill as having qualified under an existing waiver. Finally, H.R. 1435 revokes any CAA section 209(b) waivers California received between January 1, 2022, and the date H.R. 1534 becomes law if the California motor vehicle standard receiving a waiver “directly or indirectly” limited the sale or use of new motor vehicles with an ICE.

H.R. 3337 has two distinct pieces to it related to the definition of “advanced biofuel” in the RFS under CAA section 211(o)(1)(B). First, it allows “ethanol derived from corn starch” to qualify for RFS volume requirements as a “renewable fuel” and an “advanced biofuel.” Second, because the definition of “advanced biofuel” requires a determination by EPA that the fuel has lifecycle GHG emissions “that are at least 50 percent less than baseline lifecycle GHGs,” H.R. 3337 requires EPA, 90 days after enactment and then every 5 years, to update its methodology for analyzing lifecycle GHG emissions from ethanol derived from corn starch and biomass-based diesel. For the first iteration, H.R. 3337 requires EPA to use the most recent Greenhouse Gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy Use in Transportation model (“GREET model”’) GREET is a tool developed by the Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory to examine the lifecycle impacts for any given energy and vehicle system; it can calculate total energy consumption (non-renewable and renewable), emissions of air pollutants, emissions of greenhouse gases, and water consumption.

The No Fuels Credits for Batteries Act clarifies that EPA is not authorized to use credits for electricity generated from renewable fuel to satisfy the volume of renewable fuel that needs to be contained in transportation fuel for purposes of the RFS. The legislation also prohibits the use or transfer of any eRINs credits generated before the date of enactment (to address any gap with EPA’s December 1, 2022, proposal). Finally, it defines “renewable fuel” and “transportation fuel” using their RFS definitions.

The Choice in Automobile Retail Sales (CARS) Act has two parts. First, it prohibits the EPA from finalizing, implementing, or enforcing its proposed rule titled “Multi-Pollutant Emissions Standards for Model Years 2027 and Later Light-Duty and Medium-Duty Vehicles” that was published in the Federal Register on May 5, 2023. Second, it amends CAA section 202(a)(2) to prevent any regulations previously issued with this authority from mandating the use of any specific technology or resulting in the limited availability of new motor vehicles based on that vehicle’s engine type. It also gives EPA two years to update those regulations that mandate the use of a specific technology or result in the limited availability of new vehicles based upon that vehicle’s engine.