BACKWARD SHUFFLE — Environment-minded voters already frustrated with what they see as Democrats’ insufficient commitment to the fight against global warming can’t be feeling any better in the wake of a pair of policy decisions that show political reality trumping high-minded agendas. The Biden administration’s weakening of motor-vehicle fuel standards from an earlier proposal and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s shelving of a congestion pricing plan designed to discourage driving in Manhattan, as much as they suggest a swing away from climate goals, also reflect politicians’ need to balance those targets with other needs, especially in an election year. And they suggest a hesitancy to take big swings at Americans' love for driving. The fuel-efficiency rollback, while seen as a win for industry, could also be viewed as an attempt to find a middle ground between environmental groups pushing for stronger standards and Republicans vowing to try to undo the rule in Congress. For its part, the White House argued that the eased regulations will allow auto companies to focus more on electric vehicles, while also expressing concern that more aggressive regulations would drive up the cost of EVs at a rate that outpaces any fuel savings. Still, SUVs and pick-up trucks will now see only modest fuel economy improvements — but the move allows the administration to avoid yet another election-year headline about the impact of its regulatory agenda on high prices. "It looks like the left hand knew what the right hand was doing. That’s the kind of coordination we recommended," said John Bozzella, president and CEO of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation. "So that’s good and appreciated." The approach was challenged by Albert Gore III, executive director of the Zero Emission Transportation Association, who said the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s final rule fell “short of what is possible.” “I’ve always been a bit skeptical of the proposition that we need to keep making inefficient trucks and SUVs in order to finance the development of EV technology and deployment of EV technology,” Gore said. “It seems like we oughta be doing everything we can to produce cleaner vehicles across the board and regardless of power train.” Hochul's last-minute move to pause New York's congestion pricing plan, which was influenced by the program's unpopularity in competitive suburban House districts that Democrats can ill afford to lose, raised concerns among environmentalists that it could freeze out other large cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles that were looking at implementing similar policies. “It was always this sense of well, we'll get to see how New York's going and we'll learn from that as we go to implement our program here,” said Stuart Cohen, co-founder and senior adviser for TransForm, a California-based public transportation advocacy group. “And so yeah, this will absolutely take the wind out of the sails of pricing programs across the country, but especially on the West Coast.” Travis Brouwer, assistant director at Oregon’s Department of Transportation, said his state had similar challenges in getting a tolling program up and running, and that New York’s plan could’ve helped revive Oregon’s idea. “My overall takeaway is: It's really difficult to develop new ways of paying for transportation, particularly when routes that were previously free, or low cost, are now going to cost commuters a lot more,” he said. Some environmental activists — on both the fuel efficiency standards and New York’s congestion pricing debacle — are being careful in expressing dismay. The Sierra Club, for example, underscored the benefits of the new fuel standards, while the Natural Resources Defense Council touted the administration’s other efforts to curb pollution. “The Biden administration’s clean vehicle and transportation policies are steering us to a better future one with lower costs and more options for drivers and commuters and much less of the pollution that's driving climate change,” said Luke Tonachel, senior transportation strategist at the NRDC. Same goes for congestion pricing in New York. Tonachel said that the program is important for the city’s transit system and needs “to get back on track.” “We also have to recognize that there are other efforts to reduce pollution in terms of the cleaning up of vehicles and the investment from the bipartisan infrastructure law and the Inflation Reduction Act to boost the options for commuters and to make improvements to our transit systems across the country,” he said.
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