Yahoo Autos Trump Expected to Roll Back Fuel-Efficiency Standards on March 31
On Tuesday, March 31, President Trump is expected to issue final rules rolling back the fuel-efficiency standards set during the Obama administration.
The new standards will require automaker fleets to average 40 mpg by 2025 instead of 54 mpg.
Twenty states are expected to fight the ruling in court, creating uncertainty for the automotive world.
The Trump administration has been itching to roll back Obama-era fuel efficiency standards. According to the New York Times, the feds will issue final rules tomorrow, which were drawn up by the Department of Transportation and the EPA. When that happens, it is expected to start a chain reaction of court cases that could remain unresolved for years and put automakers in a sort of limbo as they try to determine how to navigate their vehicle road maps.
When Trump took office, automakers urged him to ease the Obama-era standards enacted in 2012 that required automakers to increase efficiency standards by approximately 5 percent per year until 2025. The industry hoped to reduce that to 2.4 percent. It was a goal that automakers were already set to accomplish without regulations. Instead, Trump’s rule would reduce the efficiency gains to 1.5 percent a year.
The ruling will also strip California of its ability to set its own standard. The state was issued a waiver under the 1970 Clean Air Act that allowed it to set its own rules. Trump wants the EPA to strip the state of that power. That has triggered lawsuits from California, which wants control over how pollution is emitted on its roads, and other states that follow the Golden State's standards. California, of course, is the country's most populous state and a huge market for automakers.
