Senate Bill to Cut MPG/Emissions Benefits is Bad for Business, the Economy and Consumers

BOSTON, May 25, 2017 /3BL Media/ - A new bill would roll back the many benefits of fuel economy standards that are currently working to protect jobs and keep hard-earned dollars in local economies, Impax Asset Management and Ceres said in a statement.

The bill, introduced today in the U.S. Senate by Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Missouri), would be a huge setback for businesses, the economy and consumers. 

“The bill would stall innovation, harming auto parts suppliers that employ two and a half times more Americans than auto companies,” said David Richardson, executive director for Impax Asset Management, which manages approximately $8 billion in assets for institutional investors around the world. “Consistent, achievable standards are already in place that provide market certainty, ensuring returns on investments in research, development and production of fuel saving technologies. When you undermine America’s fuel- and money-saving clean vehicles standards, you undermine American economic growth.”

Ceres-commissioned research by independent auto analysts Alan Baum and Dan Luria shows that the fuel economy standards help the U.S. auto industry stay competitive, profitable, and innovative, and that if the standards were weakened, suppliers could lose $3.3 billion a year from 2022-2025 in sales of fuel efficiency technologies.

“This latest effort by automaker lobbyists has resulted in a bill that would rollback the fuel savings benefits of fuel economy standards–especially for consumers and businesses that rely on larger vehicles,” said Carol Lee Rawn, transportation director at Ceres, a sustainability nonprofit organization that works with investors and companies, many of them Fortune 500 firms, to build leadership and drive solutions throughout the economy. “In addition, by effectively weakening the standards, the bill would undermine automakers’ global competitiveness, especially in the event of a fuel price spike.”

Ceres is a sustainability nonprofit organization working with the most influential investors and companies to build leadership and drive solutions throughout the economy. For more information, visit www.ceres.org and follow @CeresNews.