MEMA Briefs White House on Supplier Role as Innovators in CAFE and Greenhouse Gas Technologies

The Motor & Equipment Manufacturers Association (MEMA) met November 1 with the White House Council on Environmental Quality to present data to support MEMA’s position that motor vehicle suppliers are at the forefront in investments in new technologies to meet the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) and vehicle greenhouse gas (GHG) standards.

Specifically, MEMA Vice President of Legislative Affairs Catherine Boland and MEMA Senior Director of Environmental Policy Laurie Holmes worked to educate the White House council that the recent 19 percent increase in jobs within the motor vehicle parts manufacturing industry can be partly attributed to major, long-term investments in advanced technology development as a result of the CAFE and GHG program standards set in 2012.

Suppliers take on the initial investments and the associated risks to develop technologies for their vehicle manufacturer customers. Suppliers have ongoing, extensive investments in research and development of advanced technologies to bring needed emissions-reducing technologies to fruition.

Since these costs must be amortized over several years, delaying a product deployment or shortening a product’s anticipated lifespan will jeopardize planned technology investments that were put in place several years in advance.

“Suppliers are urging the continuation of these standards, because the consequences of changing them midstream could have a negative ripple effect,” said MEMA President and CEO Steve Handschuh. “If standards are relaxed, it would put at risk the investments, intellectual property, and jobs that are here in the U.S. and shift them to other markets where the standards are more stringent. This meeting was critical to helping the White House understand this complexity and demonstrate MEMA’s growing voice on this issue.”

The meeting between MEMA’s Government Affairs team and the White House was among many held in 2017 as part of a comprehensive effort to inform the Trump administration and its agencies about the issues that impact motor vehicle parts suppliers – the largest sector of manufacturing jobs in the U.S.