The fuel economy standards issued under former President Biden exceeded legal authority, the U.S. Department of Transportation said on Friday.
Under the so-called Corporate Average Fuel Economy Program (CAFE), the Biden Administration included electric vehicles (EVs) in calculating fuel economy regulations.
Now the Trump Administration published a ‘Resetting the Corporate Average Fuel Economy Program’ rule, in which it declared that the Biden-era rule and rule-making exceeded legal authority.
Last month, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) had submitted the interpretive rule for review.
“This is a key step towards reversing the prior administration’s illegal interpretation of CAFE standards that made cars more expensive for working class families,” DOT said in May.
“The Biden-Buttigieg administration illegally used CAFE standards as a backdoor electric vehicle mandate – driving the price of cars up,” Secretary Duffy said in a statement.
In an executive order on Day One, President Trump said that the Administration’s policy will be aimed at eliminating the “electric vehicle (EV) mandate” and promote true consumer choice, which is essential for economic growth and innovation, by removing regulatory barriers to motor vehicle access.”
The Trump Administration is also considering “the elimination of unfair subsidies and other ill-conceived government-imposed market distortions that favor EVs over other technologies and effectively mandate their purchase by individuals, private businesses, and government entities alike by rendering other types of vehicles unaffordable.”
Republican lawmakers have been calling for more than a year for the withdrawal of the so-called EV mandate.
“NHTSA’s proposed standards, when coupled with the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) distinct, extreme tailpipe emissions proposal, amount to a de facto mandate for electric vehicles (EVs) that threatens to raise costs and restrict consumer choice, harm U.S. businesses, degrade our energy and national security and hand the keys of our automotive industry over to our adversaries, especially China,” more than 120 lawmakers wrote in January last year.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
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