President Trump announced Wednesday he will eliminate strict fuel economy standards imposed under the Biden administration that have been blamed for driving up the cost of new cars.
Mr. Trump announced the new relaxed standards in the Oval Office, where he was joined by the top executives of the “Big Three” U.S. car manufacturing companies — Ford, General Motors and Chrysler-owner Stellantis.
The move comes as Mr. Trump has doubled down on addressing affordability, an issue voters say is a top concern. The president said dropping Biden-era fuel economy standards will cut car-production costs and save U.S. car buyers $109 billion.
“This action is expected to save the typical consumer at least $1,000 off the price of a new car, and we think substantially more than that,” Mr. Trump said, calling former President Biden’s rule “horrible.”
Those Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards had required manufacturers to have their line of new passenger cars and light trucks average a fuel efficiency of more than 50 miles per gallon by 2031.
“It was ridiculous, very expensive. It put tremendous upward pressure on car prices,” Mr. Trump said.
Under the loosened standards, the federal government would require an average fuel efficiency of 34.5 miles a gallon for vehicles by model year 2031.
The change also eliminates a credit-purchasing scheme automakers were able to use to avoid fines.
Mr. Trump announced changes amid attacks from Democrats that he has not lowered high prices since taking office.
“They use the word ’affordability,’” Mr. Trump said. “It’s a Democrat hoax. They’re the ones that drove prices up.”
As an example, Mr. Trump said, the Biden administration’s “green” policies raised car costs by 18% in one year.
Mr. Biden’s strict standards were among a series of actions by his administration aimed at forcing more electric cars and trucks into the nation’s vehicle fleet.
Mr. Trump, who campaigned on eliminating the “electric vehicle mandate,” has taken steps to kill most of those initiatives.
The GOP’s tax cut bill, signed by Mr. Trump in July, undercut CAFE standards by eliminating the steep civil penalties automakers were forced to pay for noncompliance.
The legislation also phased out the $7,500 tax credit available to many who purchased an electric vehicle.
Mr. Trump also signed GOP-passed legislation blocking a California rule banning the sale of new gas-powered vehicles by 2035, which Mr. Trump said Wednesday would have “ruined the entire nation of automobiles.”
In July, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin set aside a strict emission standard imposed by Mr. Biden in 2023 that would have required two-thirds of all cars and 25% of all heavy-duty trucks sold in the United States to be electric-powered by 2032.
Mr. Zeldin blocked future emissions caps by rescinding the 2009 endangerment finding that greenhouse gases are a public-health threat, which is the legal basis that the federal government uses to regulate tailpipe emissions.
“These policies forced automakers to build cars using expensive technology that drove up prices and make the cars much worse,” Mr. Trump said. “All of the nonsense is being taken out of the cars.”
Ford CEO Jim Farley said the new standard is “aligned with customer demand” and will let the company invest in building more-affordable vehicles.
Environmental groups quickly criticized the announcement and said the CAFE standards are needed because the U.S. uses more oil than any nation in the world.
Passenger cars were responsible for 20% of vehicle emissions in 2022, according to the EPA.
“Gutting the clean car standards will allow automakers to make vehicles that guzzle more gas and pollute more. It will force consumers to pay up to $35 billion more at the pump,” said Dan Becker, director of the Center for Biological Diversity’s Safe Climate Transport Campaign.
