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The EPA Is Reportedly Proposing Its Strictest-Ever Limits on Auto Emissions

News Feed
Sunday, April 9, 2023

The Environmental Protection Agency is preparing a regulation that would ensure up to two-thirds of all new cars sold by 2032 will be fully electric, according to reporting from the New York Times and Washington Post. The proposal would go beyond President Joe Biden’s previously stated goal to have “50 percent of all new vehicle sales be electric by 2030.” The new rule would be the most aggressive move so far from the Biden administration to limit auto pollution, which makes up a significant portion of overall US greenhouse gas emissions. To encourage automakers to sell more electric vehicles, the regulation would reportedly set a limit to the amount of emissions an auto company’s fleet of sold cars can produce every year. The requirement wouldn’t specifically mandate that auto companies sell electric vehicles, but that limit would make doing so necessary to comply.  The proposed regulation, first reported by the New York Times, is expected to be formally announced by Wednesday. Given the impact on auto companies’ bottom lines, it would likely result in a battle between the administration, the auto industry, environmental groups, and consumer advocates over the new rules. The regulation would also go through public comment before taking effect and will almost certainly face legal challenges, meaning it could be months before the EPA officially sets the new rules. The auto industry is likely to maintain that meeting the requirements of the proposal isn’t realistic. Last year, electric vehicle sales were up 65 percent from 2021, but they still only accounted for about 6 percent of all new vehicle sales. Getting EV sales up to the 67 percent in the reported EPA proposal would require, as the Times put it, a “quantum leap.” The Biden administration has long seemed determined to make such a dramatic jump. In March, the administration announced commitments to expand the federal fleet of electric vehicles and the availability of charging stations. That plan includes placing 500,000 chargers across the nation’s highways and interstates. Earlier this year, the Inflation Reduction Act included an expansion of tax credits for the purchase of new or used electric vehicles. The administration’s actions on EV expansion are part of a larger goal to “put the United States on a path to achieve net-zero emissions, economy-wide, by no later than 2050,” according to the White House. 

The Environmental Protection Agency is preparing a regulation that would ensure up to two-thirds of all new cars sold by 2032 will be fully electric, according to reporting from the New York Times and Washington Post. The proposal would go beyond President Joe Biden’s previously stated goal to have “50 percent of all new vehicle sales be electric by […]

The Environmental Protection Agency is preparing a regulation that would ensure up to two-thirds of all new cars sold by 2032 will be fully electric, according to reporting from the New York Times and Washington Post. The proposal would go beyond President Joe Biden’s previously stated goal to have “50 percent of all new vehicle sales be electric by 2030.”

The new rule would be the most aggressive move so far from the Biden administration to limit auto pollution, which makes up a significant portion of overall US greenhouse gas emissions. To encourage automakers to sell more electric vehicles, the regulation would reportedly set a limit to the amount of emissions an auto company’s fleet of sold cars can produce every year. The requirement wouldn’t specifically mandate that auto companies sell electric vehicles, but that limit would make doing so necessary to comply. 

The proposed regulation, first reported by the New York Times, is expected to be formally announced by Wednesday. Given the impact on auto companies’ bottom lines, it would likely result in a battle between the administration, the auto industry, environmental groups, and consumer advocates over the new rules. The regulation would also go through public comment before taking effect and will almost certainly face legal challenges, meaning it could be months before the EPA officially sets the new rules.

The auto industry is likely to maintain that meeting the requirements of the proposal isn’t realistic. Last year, electric vehicle sales were up 65 percent from 2021, but they still only accounted for about 6 percent of all new vehicle sales. Getting EV sales up to the 67 percent in the reported EPA proposal would require, as the Times put it, a “quantum leap.”

The Biden administration has long seemed determined to make such a dramatic jump. In March, the administration announced commitments to expand the federal fleet of electric vehicles and the availability of charging stations. That plan includes placing 500,000 chargers across the nation’s highways and interstates. Earlier this year, the Inflation Reduction Act included an expansion of tax credits for the purchase of new or used electric vehicles. The administration’s actions on EV expansion are part of a larger goal to “put the United States on a path to achieve net-zero emissions, economy-wide, by no later than 2050,” according to the White House. 

Read the full story here.
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This map shows how air pollution travels to your neighborhood

If you search for your city on a new map and zoom in, you can see pollution drifting from factories, power plants, and ports into your neighborhood. The map—a first-of-its-kind air quality tool from Climate TRACE, a nonprofit coalition cofounded by former Vice President Al Gore—shows how pollution moves through cities. The new interactive tool, launching September 24, is powered by a sophisticated model that tracks local air pollution and weather data and feeds the map. It shows PM 2.5 pollution (responsible for nearly 9 million deaths each year globally) in more than 2,500 cities. Orange dots indicate sources of pollution, with a stream of smaller dots showing how it moves over the city, shifting course with the wind. Right now, the map presents snapshots of average and bad air days in each city. But it will later offer data in near real time. [Image: Climate TRACE] “Eventually, we will have it on a daily basis, so that if you have a child with asthma or if you have family members with lung and heart conditions that make them sensitive to air pollution, you can go to your favorite weather app and see exactly what the pollution flows have been through your neighborhood that particular day,” Gore says. Health researchers can use the data to see how pollution is linked to disease at the neighborhood level. Louisiana’s Cancer Alley, for example, has one of the highest levels of air pollution in the world. One community in the area, called Reserve, has a cancer rate 50 times higher than the U.S. average. [Image: Climate TRACE] The tool’s visualizations can aid policymakers in making the case for more state regulation and help the worst-polluting sites transition to cleaner tech. (As the Environmental Protection Agency moves to stop collecting some emissions data, Climate TRACE, which stands for “tracking real-time atmospheric carbon emissions,” can also help partially fill that data gap.) Companies can use its data to identify and replace the worst polluters in their supply chains. Because the same sources are responsible for both climate emissions and air pollution, highlighting the health impacts also helps build support for climate action. “Connecting those two streams of pollution, and tracing them back to the same combustion process, makes it easier to understand exactly why we have to accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels,” says Gore. [Image: Climate TRACE] The coalition launched in 2020 to track greenhouse gas emissions using satellite images, other data, and machine learning to estimate the pollution emitted by industrial sites. Last year, the group added “co-pollutants” like particulate matter and sulfur dioxide to its database, using data on the size and type of each polluting site. The new tool can help make the issue of air pollution seem more immediate and personal. “My experience with everyone I’ve showed this to is that it feels abstract until they see themselves in the story,” says Gavin McCormick, cofounder of Climate TRACE. “You can show people on a map where their house is, they can show you where their kid goes to school, and you can see the pollution. I think that’s just kind of making people realize this is happening to them.”

If you search for your city on a new map and zoom in, you can see pollution drifting from factories, power plants, and ports into your neighborhood. The map—a first-of-its-kind air quality tool from Climate TRACE, a nonprofit coalition cofounded by former Vice President Al Gore—shows how pollution moves through cities. The new interactive tool, launching September 24, is powered by a sophisticated model that tracks local air pollution and weather data and feeds the map. It shows PM 2.5 pollution (responsible for nearly 9 million deaths each year globally) in more than 2,500 cities. Orange dots indicate sources of pollution, with a stream of smaller dots showing how it moves over the city, shifting course with the wind. Right now, the map presents snapshots of average and bad air days in each city. But it will later offer data in near real time. [Image: Climate TRACE] “Eventually, we will have it on a daily basis, so that if you have a child with asthma or if you have family members with lung and heart conditions that make them sensitive to air pollution, you can go to your favorite weather app and see exactly what the pollution flows have been through your neighborhood that particular day,” Gore says. Health researchers can use the data to see how pollution is linked to disease at the neighborhood level. Louisiana’s Cancer Alley, for example, has one of the highest levels of air pollution in the world. One community in the area, called Reserve, has a cancer rate 50 times higher than the U.S. average. [Image: Climate TRACE] The tool’s visualizations can aid policymakers in making the case for more state regulation and help the worst-polluting sites transition to cleaner tech. (As the Environmental Protection Agency moves to stop collecting some emissions data, Climate TRACE, which stands for “tracking real-time atmospheric carbon emissions,” can also help partially fill that data gap.) Companies can use its data to identify and replace the worst polluters in their supply chains. Because the same sources are responsible for both climate emissions and air pollution, highlighting the health impacts also helps build support for climate action. “Connecting those two streams of pollution, and tracing them back to the same combustion process, makes it easier to understand exactly why we have to accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels,” says Gore. [Image: Climate TRACE] The coalition launched in 2020 to track greenhouse gas emissions using satellite images, other data, and machine learning to estimate the pollution emitted by industrial sites. Last year, the group added “co-pollutants” like particulate matter and sulfur dioxide to its database, using data on the size and type of each polluting site. The new tool can help make the issue of air pollution seem more immediate and personal. “My experience with everyone I’ve showed this to is that it feels abstract until they see themselves in the story,” says Gavin McCormick, cofounder of Climate TRACE. “You can show people on a map where their house is, they can show you where their kid goes to school, and you can see the pollution. I think that’s just kind of making people realize this is happening to them.”

Pollution
Climate
Health

Al Gore's Satellite and AI System Is Now Tracking Sources of Deadly Soot Pollution

Former Vice President Al Gore has announced an expansion of Climate TRACE to track soot pollution using satellite technology and artificial intelligence

NEW YORK (AP) — Soon people will be able to use satellite technology and artificial intelligence to track dangerous soot pollution in their neighborhoods — and where it comes from — in a way not so different from monitoring approaching storms under plans by a nonprofit coalition led by former Vice President Al Gore.Gore, who started Climate TRACE, which uses satellites to monitor the location of heat-trapping methane sources, on Wednesday expanded his system to track the source and plume of pollution from tiny particles, often referred to as soot, on a neighborhood basis for 2,500 cities across the world. Particle pollution kills millions of people worldwide each year — and tens of thousands in the United States — according to scientific studies and reports.Gore's coalition uses 300 satellites, 30,000 ground-tracking sensors and artificial intelligence to track 137,095 sources of particle pollution, with 3,937 of them categorized as “super emitters” for how much they spew. Users can look at long-term trends, but in about a year Gore hopes these can become available daily so they can be incorporated into weather apps, like allergy reports.It’s not just seeing the pollutants. The website shows who is spewing them.“It’s difficult, before AI, for people to really see precisely where this conventional air pollution is coming from,” Gore said. “When it’s over in their homes and in their neighborhoods and when people have a very clear idea of this, then I think they’re empowered with the truth of their situation. My faith tradition has always taught me you will know the truth and the truth shall set you free.”Unlike methane, soot pollution isn't technically a climate issue because it doesn't cause the world to warm, but it does come from the same process: fossil fuel combustion.“It's the same combustion process of the same fuels that produce both the greenhouse gas pollution and the particulate pollution that kills almost 9 million people every single year,'' Gore said in a video interview Monday. "I’ll give you an example. I recently spent a week in Cancer Alley, the stretch between Baton Rouge and New Orleans where the U.S. petrochemical industry is based. That’s a 65-mile (105-kilometer) stretch, you know, and on either side of the river we did an analysis with the Climate TRACE data. If Cancer Alley were a nation, its per capita global warming pollution emissions would rank fourth in the world, behind Turkmenistan.”Gore's firm found Karachi, Pakistan, had the most people exposed to soot pollution, followed by Guangzhou, China, Seoul, South Korea, New York City and Dhaka, Bangladesh.The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Photos You Should See – Sept. 2025

Pollution
Climate
Technology

Hundreds plunge in Chicago River for first official swim in nearly 100 years

Group participates in previously unthinkable mile-long swim after US made key progress to clean polluted riversHundreds of people plunged into the Chicago River’s chilly waters on Sunday as part of the first organized swim in the river for nearly 100 years, a previously unthinkable act in what was once one of the most befouled waterways in the world.About 300 people, some wearing wetsuits, jumped into the Chicago River for a mile-long looping swim on an early, overcast midwest morning, a feat made possible by the often unseen but crucial progress the US has made in the past half century in cleaning its rivers of toxic pollution. Continue reading...

Hundreds of people plunged into the Chicago River’s chilly waters on Sunday as part of the first organized swim in the river for nearly 100 years, a previously unthinkable act in what was once one of the most befouled waterways in the world.About 300 people, some wearing wetsuits, jumped into the Chicago River for a mile-long looping swim on an early, overcast midwest morning, a feat made possible by the often unseen but crucial progress the US has made in the past half century in cleaning its rivers of toxic pollution.“It’s overwhelming to see this happen, it’s unbelievable to see swimmers swim past us now,” said Doug McConnell, the main organizer of the event.McConnell, a Chicago area native and co-founder of A Long Swim, had been pushing the city’s leadership for more than a decade to allow a swim in the river, the first such event since 1927, having witnessed the blossoming urban river swimming movement take hold in cities such as Paris, Munich and Amsterdam.“Seeing that really planted a seed, and we are thrilled we are finally doing this and that it has got global attention – we had applications across the US and 13 countries,” said McConnell, who hopes this will become an annual event and spread to other US cities.McConnell didn’t leap into the water on Sunday but is an accomplished long-distance swimmer, having traversed the English Channel, which he recalls as “14 hours of getting slapped around”, and swam around the island of Manhattan, all in aid of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) fundraising.“I think the water conditions will surprise people because it will be cleaner than they expect,” he said. “The psychology of so many Chicagoans was that the river is untouchable – this isn’t true and we are proving this today.“My grandfather grew up in Chicago and I think what his reaction to all of this would be because the river had an absolutely toxic reputation then. It was repulsive, absolutely untouchable.”The Chicago River has a long history of being meddled with. Each year it is dyed green for St Patrick’s Day and, infamously, in 2004 the tour bus of Dave Matthews Band released 800lbs (363kg) of human waste through a bridge grate that landed on top of a boat of mightily unfortunate sightseers traveling on the river.Indeed, Chicago initially grew by treating its slow-moving river as an unfettered dumping area. Sewage and other waste was routinely funneled into the river, including carcasses and effluent from huge slaughterhouses that clustered beside the waterway – to the extent that a section of the river is still called “bubble creek” due to the gas given off by the rotting sludge on the riverbed.The river became so foul, causing deadly outbreaks of cholera and typhoid, that the city took the extraordinary step in 1900 of reversing the river’s flow by creating a system of canals and locks, to avoid Chicago’s source of drinking water in Lake Michigan becoming poisoned. Today, the 156-mile (265km) river meanders from Lake Michigan through Chicago so its water ultimately empties into the Gulf of Mexico.“We treated the river like it was part of the sewer system, which haunted us,” said Margaret Frisbie, the executive director of Friends of the Chicago River. Riverside buildings typically didn’t even have windows overlooking what was known as “the stinking river”, with the ribbon of water shunned as part of Chicago’s civic fabric.“Until just a few years ago people would’ve thought it would be outrageous to jump into it,” Frisbie said. When Friends of the Chicago River formed in 1979 with a vision to restore the ecological function of a river that could be enjoyed by people and wildlife alike, “people thought we were crazy,” she said.Yet the 1970s was a seminal decade for environmental protection in the US, with the passage of the Clean Water Act and the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) – bringing new restrictions on pollution dumped into rivers, streams and lakes. Where once American rivers were so toxic they could catch fire, a new era had begun that would allow US cities to think more affectionately of their foundational waterways.In Chicago, the slaughterhouses shut down, new sewage and storm water infrastructure was built and teams of volunteers, as they do to this day, toiled to clean up trash.Dozens of species of fish returned, as did beavers and snapping turtles such as Chonkosaurus, an enormous, locally famous specimen sometimes seen lounging by the river.In 2016, a riverside public pathway was completed to knit the downtown area to its adjacent water, allowing Chicagoans in new bars and restaurants to gaze upon a river that is no longer a fetid soup, a place clean enough that people can now swim in it. On 12 September, it was announced that Friends of the Chicago River won an international prize in recognition of the river’s transformation.“So many people are on rental boats on the river these days – it’s heaving with people,” Frisbie said. “People want to work near the river, live near it, be on it. It’s remarkable to see people have that connection with it again.“This swim is emblematic of all the work we’ve done over the past 50 years to improve our rivers. It shows you can change the destiny of any natural resource and do some good. It feels that’s something we need right now.”America’s rivers may now increasingly be places of scenic recreation rather than industrial sacrifice zones, but this does depend on the vicissitudes of politics. The Trump administration is narrowing the application of the Clean Water Act, which helped ensure healthier rivers, and is similarly weakening rules on what coal plants and factories can dump in waterways. The bad old days may be a thing of the past, but ongoing progress isn’t guaranteed.“If the federal government retreats from enforcement, things could slide backwards,” Frisbie said. “It’s incumbent on cities, countries and states to be vigilant. Our river is beloved now – people want to use it, wildlife needs it, we need it. We want to maintain that rather than see it roll back.”On Sunday, though, few swimmers were mulling such weighty topics as they lined up in robes, serenaded by the skirl of the Chicago police department’s bagpipes and drum, before stripping and vaulting into the river, bobbling flotation devices tethered to their waists.Organizers had zealously tested the water in the weeks before the event, finding that the river was consistently safe in terms of EPA standards on fecal coliform – essentially, poo in the water. The river was scanned, too, for any potential obstructions to the swimmers.Among the participants for the first river swim in 98 years – all strictly vetted to ensure they could complete the course – was Olivia Smoliga, who grew up in the Chicago suburbs and went on to win a gold medal in backstroke at the 2016 Olympic games.Open water swimming is a different beast to the lanes of a pool, but Smoliga’s competitive spirit compelled her to speed around the river loop, even though it was not intended to be a race.“You have people throwing elbows there – you have to watch out for fingernail length, everything,” she said. “The fact they were able to clean up the river and do such great work, to have this full on race happen, is trippy. But it’s really cool.”

Pollution
Water
Health

Chemours pushes to increase PFAS production at Fayetteville Works Plant

Environmental advocates say they're concerned increasing production could increase pollution levels downstream.

Environmental advocates say they're concerned increasing production could increase pollution levels downstream.

Pollution

First-ever global plastic pellet cleanup spurs calls for EPA regs

A new report highlights the scale of environmental pollution tied to the plastic pieces, prompting calls for a clampdown on discharges into waterways.

A new report highlights the scale of environmental pollution tied to the plastic pieces, prompting calls for a clampdown on discharges into waterways.

Pollution
Water

Suggested Viewing

A River Reborn

As the Little Conemaugh River winds through the Allegheny Mountains of Pennsylvania, it forms the backbone of a region with a legacy of industrial might. And like a scribe, the river carries the weight of that history - mile after mile devoid of life, poisoned by toxic pollution from countless abandoned coal mines. Generations of residents and neighbors have turned their back on the river, believing the damage to be irreversible and scolding their children for playing in its orange waters. But a decade-long effort from a coalition of local groups has begun to reveal a different future for the Little Conemaugh and for other rivers in Pennsylvania and beyond that were written off as a casualty of the coal industry. A River Reborn tells the story of the rebirth of the Little Conemaugh, and what it says about our ability to fix what might have been lost forever.

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Mayday Terranean

Mayday Terranean is a documentary film portraying the problems of the Mediterranean Sea as well as the beauty it still has to offer. Scientists, conservationists and activists from countries around the Mediterranean Sea talk about the topic, their relationship to ocean conservation and shed light on the story of this wonderful but endangered place.

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Precarious

An independent art film, Precarious is a haunting evocation of the aftermath of the explosion at Chernobyl, 25 years on. Accompanied by testimony from a group of unseen veterans of the disaster, Precarious bears witness to both the folly and resilience of humans and to nature's fragility.

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Kingdom of Waste

Our garbage accumulates and gives life to a plastic monster. We wish his reign to be short. It is probably time to think over how we produce and consume to pollute less.

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A Community, Fighting

This short film marks the 20 year campaign sparked by the news that a waste company had arrived armed with plans to build a large hazardous waste incinerator at the end of a then undeveloped cul-de-sac in Ringaskiddy, the industrial heartland of Cork. As news percolated around Cork Harbour, concern and opposition, evident from the outset, consolidated, galvanised and continued to go from strength to strength over the course of the years that saw a community stuck in a battle that they didn’t invite. The campaign, at the time of completion of this film, is still ongoing. This film is a visual representation of the time that has passed - from protests, to fundraisers, to court battles, at the heart of it a community subject to much struggle. However, they have not let that stop them and have truly shown the strength in numbers and staying power.

Activism
Pollution
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