The Trump administration is proposing new fuel economy standards for vehicles that would get rid of unwarranted and unrealistic requirements set during the Biden administration. CEI energy policy expert Marlo Lewis explains how the program got distorted and what the most recent proposed reforms would accomplish.
Statement of Marlo Lewis, CEI Senior Fellow, Energy & Environmental Policy
“CEI strongly supports the Department of Transportation’s proposal to reset the federal Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) program. Under the Biden administration, industrial policy czar wannabes, regulatory rent seekers, and climate campaigners carjacked the CAFE program, turning it into a power boost for California and the Environmental Protection Agency’s unlawful agenda to ban gas-powered cars, restrict Americans’ freedom of vehicle choice, and price millions of consumers out of the new-car market.
“Secretary Duffy’s proposal accomplishes two goals. First, it slows down mandated increases in fleet average fuel economy. Instead of mandatory fuel economy increasing by rates of 8 percent per year for Model Years 2024 and 2025 and 10 percent for MY 2026, the newly proposed standards increase at a rate of 0.5 percent for MYs 2022-2026. And instead of mandatory fuel economy increasing by a rate of 2 percent annually for MYs 2027-2031, the newly proposed standards increase by rates of 0.35 percent for MY 2027 and 0.25 percent for MYs 2028-2031.”
“Second, by using MY 2022 as the baseline for the reset, the proposed rule rolls back the CAFE program to a time before the Biden administration began to implicitly require the electrification of US motor vehicle fleets. Bravo!”
There will be a 45-day public comment period after the rule has been published in the Federal Register.
