Washington: The National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) and American Truck Dealers (ATD) have released a report which questions the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) cost analysis of emissions control requirements for model year 2004-2010 commercial trucks.
The mandates resulted in substantially higher prices for commercial vehicles, depressed sales, and delayed the environmental benefits that the EPA originally sought, according to a joint report from the NADA and the ATD, released today.
The report, which looks back at the 2004-2010 medium- and heavy-duty truck emissions mandates, says that the EPA underestimated actual compliance costs on average by a factor of two to five.
"It shows what can happen when a regulatory proposal – based on far in-advance predictions – seeks to set mandates far in the future. Importantly, the study documents the real-world market disruptions that can occur as a result," the NADA and ATD said in a joint statement.
The groups say the lessons learned from the report should be considering when reviewing the proposed fuel economy regulations for model year 2017-2025 light-duty vehicles.
"Combined with previous Obama administration fuel economy mandates, [the proposed rules] will raise the average price of a vehicle by $3,000, according to EPA and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates. When faced with unreasonable federal regulatory mandates that increase motor vehicle costs, buyers of light-duty vehicles – similar to what commercial truck buyers experienced – will seek out less expensive alternatives in the marketplace," said NADA and ATD officials in a release.
