Removed from emissions regulations: CO2 reassessment in the USA

What does this fundamental change of course by the Americans actually mean for the EU?

Indeed: difficult to foresee – especially in view of current developments in US-EU trade relations.

In contrast to the highly controversial exhaust gas regulations in the EU, the environmental authority EPA, according to FOCUS, “only classifies CO2 as a greenhouse gas, but not as a pollutant such as nitrogen oxides or sulphur dioxide. This would repeal a regulation issued in 2009, on the basis of which CO2 emissions were regulated and taxed”.

This is certainly the most radical variant of overturning the ban on combustion engines in the direction of “everything is allowed again” – i.e. also in the direction of unrestricted use of fossil fuels.

Perhaps, in view of this strong development, the unwavering adherence to the EU emissions regulations, which are often perceived as very unfair and one-sided, for the sole benefit of electromobility is no longer expedient today and must be further developed in favor of a new, genuine openness to technology. After all, it is already possible to run a combustion engine car with synthetic fuels with significantly reduced CO2 emissions. So why impose bans when there is already a better alternative to fossil fuels?

And the question or classification that CO2 is “only a greenhouse gas” and not a pollutant and must therefore be removed from the emissions regulations has apparently been conclusively answered by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). However, this CO2 reassessment certainly represents a drastic change in discourse on the subject of climate.