Eying deal, GM softens on tough standards for car pollution

DETROIT (AP) — The nation's largest automaker said Wednesday it can support greenhouse gas emissions limits that other car manufacturers negotiated with California — if they are achieved mostly by promoting sales of fully electric vehicles.

It is a new stance for General Motors, which had supported the Trump administration's efforts to end California's ability to set its own limits. The shift brings GM closer to the 2019 California deal signed onto by five other automakers, offering hope for a breakthrough on an industrywide deal.

But GM's proposal of an accelerated transition to electric vehicles — in the last year, fully electric vehicles accounted for less than 2% of U.S. new vehicle sales — falls short of more strict emissions reductions for gas-powered vehicles being urged by a top Senate Democrat.

Details of GM's shifted stance came in a letter from CEO Marry Barra to EPA Administrator Michael Regan, who has been meeting with auto companies this week in advance of the agency's release of its proposed tailpipe-pollution and fuel-economy standards, set for later this month.

Regan discussed the standards with GM CEO Mary Barra, and he also talked with Stellantis (formerly Fiat Chrysler) and Toyota officials this week, the EPA said. More meetings with automakers are coming.

An EPA spokesman said Wednesday that negotiations with automakers remained fluid but constructive as the agency seeks to meet the July goal set by President Joe Biden for emissions standards.

There still are wide differences in what automakers will agree to as the Biden administration moves to reverse former President Donald Trump’s rollback of pollution and gas mileage standards enacted before he took office.

In her letter to Regan dated Tuesday, Barra wrote that GM now supports the...