In his most recent attempt to free the American auto industry from regulations requiring cleaner, more fuel-efficient vehicles, President Trump announced on Wednesday that he intends to relax federal fuel-economy standards for passenger cars.
The announcement from the administration comes after months of efforts by the White House and Congress to weaken the Corporate Average Fuel Economy regulations, or CAFE, by doing away with penalties for infractions. This past summer, the administration and legislators essentially nullified the mandates by eliminating those penalties.
Trump lowers certain rules for carmakers
Under the new proposal, the federal government would require vehicles to average 34½ miles a gallon by model year 2031, a sharp drop from the Biden administration’s 50.4-mpg target. Additionally, the administration would do away with the long-standing arrangement that had greatly benefited Tesla by enabling automakers to purchase credits from rivals in order to avoid fines.
The administration would make it more difficult for future officials to revert to stricter regulations by lowering standards and locking more lax targets into federal law. Any attempt to tighten requirements would now involve a more complicated regulatory process than simply reinstating penalties. “We’re protecting our auto workers, and we’re making it easier for every family to afford high-quality cars,” Trump said in the Oval Office. “In other words, we’re bringing automobiles back and the manufacturing of automobiles back into this country.”
Before going into effect, the proposal needs to go through a formal rule-making process. It would apply to all model-year passenger cars and light trucks from 2022 through 2031 and would reclassify small SUVs and crossovers as passenger cars rather than light trucks.
The average fuel efficiency of an automaker’s total annual production is measured by CAFE standards. For decades, these rules have pushed companies to build cleaner vehicles, spawning models like the Toyota Prius and accelerating the rise of electric vehicles. According to Energy Policy, over the previous 50 years, fuel-saving technologies have saved two trillion gallons of gasoline.
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