Voglio sapere a riguardo di…

khammond on DSKJM1Z7X2PROD with PROPOSALS

Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 159 / Friday, August 20, 2021 / Proposed Rules
46813

tenths of an mpg of vehicles in manufacturers fleet.7

C. Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015

D. NHTSAs Actions to Date Regarding CAFE Civil Penalties
Starting with Model Year 2011, the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 EISA provided for credit transfers among a manufacturers various fleets.8 Starting with that model year, the law also provided for trading between vehicle manufacturers, which has allowed vehicle manufacturers the opportunity to acquire credits from competitors rather than paying civil penalties for violations. Manufacturers can choose to carry back credits to apply to any of three model years before they are earned or carry them forward to apply to any of the five model years after they are earned.
In complement to NHTSAs regulation of fuel economy, the Environmental Protection Agency EPA regulates the emissions of light-duty vehicles. These regulations include standards to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from the light-duty fleet. The Clean Air Act requires EPA to set greenhouse gas GHG emissions standards from lightduty vehicles since EPA has made an endangerment finding that greenhouse gases causes or contributes to air pollution which may reasonably be anticipated to endanger public health or welfare. 9 Although NHTSA and EPA have different roles and independent enforcement and compliance obligations, and operate under different statutory authority, the agencies work together to achieve the goals of their respective statutes. Since Model Year 2012, the agencies have issued joint rulemakings regulating fuel economy NHTSA and GHGs EPA
from light-duty vehicles that have different requirements but are harmonized to the extent possible to work in tandem. The CAFE program is subject to various statutory requirements not applicable to the EPA
GHG program. One such requirement, for example, requires automakers to meet a separate average fleet requirement for automobiles that are manufactured domestically.10 The Clean Air Act does not include a similar requirement for EPAs GHG standards.

On November 2, 2015, the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act Inflation Adjustment Act or 2015 Act, Public Law 11474, Section 701, was signed into law. The 2015 Act required Federal agencies to promulgate an interim final rule to make an initial catch-up adjustment to the civil monetary penalties they administer, and then to make subsequent annual adjustments for inflation. The 2015 Act limited the initial inflation increase to 150 percent of the then-current penalty.
In a February 24, 2016 memorandum, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget OMB
provided initial guidance to all Federal agencies on how to calculate the initial adjustment required by the 2015 Act.11
The initial catch-up adjustment was based on the change between the Consumer Price Index for all Urban Consumers CPIU for the month of October in the year the penalty amount was established or last adjusted by Congress and the October 2015 CPIU.
The February 24, 2016 memorandum contained a table with a multiplier for the change in CPIU from the year the penalty was established or last adjusted to 2015. To arrive at the adjusted penalty, the agency multiplied the penalty amount when it was established or last adjusted by Congress, excluding adjustments under the 1990 Inflation Adjustment Act, by the multiplier for the increase in CPIU from the year the penalty was established or adjusted.
Ensuing guidance from OMB identifies the appropriate inflation multiplier for agencies to use to calculate the subsequent annual adjustments.12

1. Initial Interim Final Rule
7 The process of determining civil penalties occurs after the end of a model year, following NHTSAs receipt of final reports from the Environmental Protection Agency EPA. See 77 FR
62624, 63126 Oct. 15, 2012.
8 Public Law 110140, 104.
9 42 U.S.C. 7521, see also 74 FR 66495 Dec. 15, 2009 Endangerment and Cause or Contribute Findings for Greenhouse Gases under Section 202a of the Clean Air Act.
10 49 U.S.C. 32902b4.

VerDate Sep<11>2014

16:48 Aug 19, 2021

Jkt 253001

11 Memorandum from the Director of OMB to Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies, Implementation of the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015
Feb. 24, 2016, available online at https
www.whitehouse.gov/sites/whitehouse.gov/files/
omb/memoranda/2016/m-16-06.pdf.
12 Memorandum from the Director of OMB to Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies, Implementation of the 2017 Annual Adjustment Pursuant to the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015 Dec. 16, 2016, available online at https
www.whitehouse.gov/sites/whitehouse.gov/files/
omb/memoranda/2017/m-17-11_0.pdf;
Memorandum from the Director of OMB to Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies, Implementation of Penalty Inflation Adjustments for 2018, Pursuant to the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015
Dec. 15, 2017, available online at https
www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/
M-18-03.pdf; Memorandum from the Director of OMB to Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies, Implementation of Penalty Inflation Adjustments for 2019, Pursuant to the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements
PO 00000

Frm 00021

Fmt 4702

Sfmt 4702

On July 5, 2016, NHTSA published an interim final rule, adopting inflation adjustments for all civil penalties under its administration, following the procedure and the formula in the 2015
Act. One of the adjustments NHTSA
made at the time was raising the civil penalty rate for CAFE violations from $5.50 to $14.13 NHTSA also indicated in that notice that the maximum penalty rate that the Secretary is permitted to establish for such violations would similarly increase to reflect inflation from the statutory cap of $10 to $25, but did not codify this change in the regulatory text. That initial interim final rule became effective on August 4, 2016.
2. Initial Petition for Reconsideration and Response On August 1, 2016, the then-Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers and the Association of Global Automakers since combined to form the Alliance for Automotive Innovation jointly petitioned NHTSA for reconsideration of the CAFE penalty provisions issued in the interim final rule.14 This petition raised concerns with the impact that the increased penalty rate would have on CAFE compliance costs, which they estimated to be at least $1 billion annually. Specifically, this petition identified several issues, including retroactivity. The petitioners were concerned that applying the penalty increase associated with model years that had already been completed or for which a companys compliance plan had already been set was a retroactive application of the inflation adjustment.
In response to the joint petition, NHTSA issued a final rule on December Act of 2015 Dec. 14, 2018, available online at https www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/
2017/11/m_19_04.pdf; Memorandum from the Acting Director of OMB to Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies, Implementation of Penalty Inflation Adjustments for 2020, Pursuant to the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015 Dec. 16, 2019, available online at https www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/
uploads/2019/12/M-20-05.pdf; Memorandum from the Director of OMB to Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies, Implementation of Penalty Inflation Adjustments for 2021, Pursuant to the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015 Dec. 23, 2020, available online at https www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/
uploads/2020/12/M-21-10.pdf.
13 81 FR 43524 July 5, 2016.
14 Jaguar Land Rover North America, LLC also filed a petition for reconsideration in response to the July 5, 2016 interim final rule raising the same concerns as those raised in the joint petition. Both petitions, along with a supplement to the joint petition, can be found in Docket No. NHTSA2016
0075 at www.regulations.gov.

E:FRFM20AUP1.SGM

20AUP1