European Parliament Panel Rejects Weakened Emission Limits

The European Parliament’s environmental committee has rejected an effort by EU members to weaken rules designed to bring vehicle on-road emissions into closer alignment with lab test ratings.

The committee voted 40:9 to reject the revised test scheme, Reuters reports. If the parliament concurs when it votes on the measure in January, it could take the European Commission another two years to draft a new plan.

The original proposal was prompted by an EC analysis indicating that some diesels emit as much as five times the allowable levels of nitrogen oxides under actual road conditions. The commission proposed to narrow the allowable gap to 60% by September 2017 and require vehicles to match the required test limit (80 milligrams per kilometer) by September 2019.

But several of the EU’s 28 members objected to the timetable. In a closed-door meeting in October, the parliament came up with a new plan. It would allow diesels to exceed lab results by 110% until January 2020 and by 50% indefinitely thereafter. The parliament’s environmental committee warned at the time it would recommend against the weaker proposal.