Trump takes on CAFE

President Trump is taking on the CAFE standards for increased fuel efficiency (i.e., mileage per gallon) for automobiles, and trucks, and SUVs, and all the other kind of vehicles built in the U.S.A.  Vox has a good article on what he's trying to do and what might (or might not) succeed.

Trump’s plan to roll back Obama’s fuel economy rules for cars, explained

There isn't a lot to excerpt from this article;  basically, the main goal is to reduce the current requirements for fuel efficiency for the years 2022 - 2025.


But I did find out a few interesting things:

"Today, the average fuel economy of new vehicles is around 25.1 miles per gallon on the road, up from 20.8 mpg in 2007."

AND

"The standards [in 2025] would add about $875 to the average sticker price of new models, but consumers would save roughly three times that much in lower fuel costs over the lifetime of their vehicles."

AND

"The hard part comes if the EPA and Department of Transportation later decide to rewrite the fuel economy standards for 2022-’25 to be less strict. They can’t just abolish the standards altogether, because of the underlying laws involved. Instead, they might try to relax the schedule for efficiency improvements, or make compliance easier by giving automakers more credit for non-engine improvements. Yet any changes would require the EPA to write a new regulation, which has to go through the formal rulemaking process and could be challenged in court.

Bob Sussman, a lawyer who was senior policy counsel at the EPA under Obama, explains that Trump officials would have to make a detailed case that the Obama-era standards are too costly to meet — say, because they depend on selling large numbers of electric vehicles that consumers are unwilling to buy. “It’s not an easy case to make,” Sussman says. “It’s very fact-intensive and highly technical.” "

AND FINALLY

"If the ZEV [Zero Emission Vehicles] rules get repealed, that would be a big blow to the electric vehicle market, says John Graham, the former administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs under George W. Bush who worked extensively on fuel-economy issues. “Tesla’s business model would be hurt without the California ZEV regulation because Tesla generates significant revenue from the sale of ZEV credits to other vehicle manufacturers,” Graham tells me. “Several manufacturers have stated publicly that they would not be offering plug-in electric vehicles were it not for the California requirements.” "

Sooo ... it will be a difficult fight to rescind the CAFE requirements.  But I'm sure the Trump Administration will try their best to undo all that's good about them.