WASHINGTON – Last week, NACS and SIGMA sent a joint letter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in response to their mid-term evaluation of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions standards for model year 2022-2025 light-duty vehicles.

NACS and SIGMA are urging the agencies to treat light-duty natural gas vehicles as equivalent to electric vehicles. The associations do not believe that valuative criteria should be manipulated to push a single technology (or policy), such as electric vehicle technology, and they do not support treating NGVs on par with EVs and believe this principle should apply universally to any technology that demonstrates the necessary emissions outcomes.

“Regulatory incentives and requirements built into current GHG emissions standards disproportionately favor EV technology over NGVs. Yet, evidence shows that the emissions benefits from NGVs are equal to those of EV technology. Thus, there is no reason to favor one efficient emissions technology over another,” the associations wrote.

NACS and SIGMA noted that adding that parity in incentives for NGVs and EVs would encourage automakers to transition light-duty vehicle segments to compressed natural gas (CNG), and including NGVs in the formulation of GHG emissions targets for 2022-2025 model year light-duty vehicles could increase EPA’s estimates of achievable emissions and fuel economy improvements, “which would weigh in favor of maintaining existing emissions reduction targets.”

The associations urge EPA and NHTSA to change existing regulatory incentives and dual-fuel vehicle design requirements to create a level playing field for light-duty natural gas vehicles and electric vehicles.