August 02, 2018 01:16 PM UTC

Trump Administration to Gut Fuel-Efficiency Standards

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• by: Colorado Pols

As the Washington Post reports, President Trump is moving ahead with plans to gut fuel-efficiency standards for vehicles:

The Trump administration announced plans Thursday to freeze fuel-efficiency requirements for the nation’s cars and trucks through 2026 — a massive regulatory rollback likely to spur a legal battle with California and other states, as well as create potential upheaval in the nation’s automotive market.

The proposal represents an abrupt reversal of the findings that the government reached under President Barack Obama, when regulators argued that requiring more-fuel-efficient vehicles would improve public health, combat climate change and save consumers money without compromising safety.

[mantra-pullquote align=”right” textalign=”left” width=”60%”]“We will fight this stupidity in every conceivable way possible.”

— California Gov. Jerry Brown[/mantra-pullquote]

President Trump’s plan also would revoke California’s long-standing legal waiver to set its own tailpipe restrictions, granted under the 1970 Clean Air Act, which the state has used most recently to try to curb greenhouse-gas emissions. It also would restrict the ability of states to follow California’s lead — something a dozen states and the District of Columbia already have done.

The likely legal clash over the policy threatens to rupture the nation’s auto market, doing away with uniform national standards negotiated by the Obama administration and potentially forcing automakers to produce different vehicles to meet standards in different states — something the industry has said it does not want. [Pols emphasis]

That last sentence is particularly important to note. The big automobile manufacturers don’t want this policy implemented any more than American farmers want Trump to introduce more tariffs, but considering the input and interest of others isn’t exactly a top priority for this administration.

An analysis from the Trump administration claims that halting fuel-efficiency targets at 2020 levels could save $500 billion in something they call “societal costs.” Of course, that same analysis also shows that U.S. fuel consumption would increase by about half a million barrels of oil each day — contributing to further Climate Change problems because of increased greenhouse-gas emissions.

Municipal leaders from Colorado spoke out forcefully in opposition to these new policies during a press conference on Tuesday.