Trump EPA Head Promises to 'Fix' Common Car Feature That Isn't Broken
Lee Zeldin, who is currently serving as the 17th Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), tweeted that “everyone hates” start/stop systems, “so we’re fixing it.”
We probably should have seen this one coming. After deleting reports on its own website showing the fuel-saving and environmental benefits of start/stop systems in the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency is apparently targeting the technology. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin published a tweet on X (formerly Twitter) saying that the agency is going to be “fixing” start/stop technology because “everyone hates it.”
Key Points
- In a tweet, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said: “Start/stop technology: where your car dies at every red light so companies get a climate participation trophy. EPA approved it, and everyone hates it, so we’re fixing it.”
- Start/stop systems are designed to save fuel by shutting the engine off when possible instead of letting it idle when it’s not being used.
- Although they can be irritating to some drivers (and the EPA has, oddly (or not), deleted evidence on its own website, start/stop systems are effective tools that save fuel and cut emissions.
Clearly, not everyone hates start/stop tech, as responses to the tweet bear out. To be fair, it’s sometimes irritating when a car’s engine shuts off unexpectedly and is then forced to restart a few seconds later. The Society of Automotive Engineers found that the systems reduce fuel consumption and cut harmful emissions, and the Argonne National Laboratory came to a similar conclusion.
It’s impossible to know at this point how the EPA will “fix” start/stop systems, but if we were betting people we’d place our bets on their removal entirely. For what it’s worth, the EPA does not mandate start/stop technology, but does provide automakers with credit for including the technology on vehicles. Last year, around two thirds of all vehicles sold in the United States included start/stop technology.
Of course, a “fix” is already available to the vast majority of drivers who own cars with start/stop systems: hit a button and turn them off.
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Growing up in a family obsessed with performance and as the son of an automotive engineer, Jeremy Korzeniewski has spent his entire life as a car enthusiast. Also an avid motorcyclist, Jeremy has spent the last two decades writing about the transportation industry and providing insights to many of the largest automotive publications in the world.
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Simplistic analysis to complex question. FACT is stop-start adds complexity to the vehicle, and that complexity has a cost in $$$ and carbon footprint (like extra wiring/circuits, heavier starter/alternators, separate auxiliary battery, & extra engine wear that the quoted 'scientific' studies conveniently ignore). At idle modern cars only burn about 1 gal of gas for THREE HOURS of idling. Still, no doubt stop-start tech can save a bit of fuel in some heavy traffic city scenarios, like food delivery drivers constantly waiting in fast-food pickup windows or soccer moms idling for half hour waiting to pick up their kid at school (Mom's fault, not the car's!). OTOH- Stop-start obviously saves NOTHING for the long-trip highway driver (actually DISADVANTAGE for them in cost/weight/complexity). Consumers should have a choice to buy vehicles that fit their needs rather than forced to buy according to (de facto) 'one-size-fits-all' Gov't mandates.
If automakers want to include start/stop great just make it to default in the off mode. If someone wants to turn it on and risk more engine and starter wear they can. I'm just not willing to risk it. The first mod I did on the wife's GV70 was the bread clip mod to disable it.