Major Investors Urge New EPA Chief to Keep MPG and GHG Standards in Place
A major group of U.S. businesses and investors, with more than $740 billion in assets under management, are urging the federal Environmental Protection Agency administrator Scott Pruitt to leave in place vehicle standards for passenger cars and light trucks.
In a letter delivered this week to Mr. Pruitt, the businesses pointed out that the standards are good for business and for the economy as a whole.
“We support staying the course on the standards because they represent an important opportunity to strengthen our economy, save consumers and businesses money, enhance the competitiveness of the American auto industry, and mitigate climate risk,” reads the letter, which is from Ceres Business for Innovative Climate and Energy Policy (BICEP), a coalition of businesses representing $400 billion in annual revenue.
In addition, Walden Asset Management sent a letter to Mr. Pruitt signed by 40 investors with more than $740 billion in assets under management expressing strong support for retaining the current standards.
“These standards will create about 484,000 new jobs throughout the economy, while boosting national gross economic output by about $21 billion,” said Anne Kelly, Senior Director of Policy at Ceres, citing numbers from More Jobs Per Gallon, a study commissioned by Ceres and authored by Management Information Services.
Automakers have been enjoying record profits even as they have continued to meet fuel-efficiency targets, producing an increasing number of advanced-technology vehicles that save consumers gas and money and benefit the industry. But now automakers are calling on Mr. Pruitt to again open up the standards, which are based on a robust technical record and significant stakeholder input.
“Rolling back the standards would be short-sighted,” said Carol Lee Rawn, Transportation Director at Ceres.
Referencing Ceres-commissioned research by independent auto analysts Alan Baum and Dan Luria, Rawn added, “The standards help the U.S. auto industry stay competitive, profitable, and innovative — and are set to give auto-parts suppliers a boost of some $90 billion in additional orders.”
Ceres is a non-profit sustainability organization that is mobilizing many of the world’s largest companies and investors to take stronger action on climate change, water scarcity and other global sustainability challenges. Ceres directs the Investor Network on Climate Risk, a group of 120 institutional investors managing about $15 trillion assets focused on the business risks and opportunities of climate change and water scarcity.
The group also engages with 100-plus companies, many of them Fortune 500 businesses, committed to sustainable business practices and the urgency for strong climate and clean energy policies.
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