The daily business briefing: April 11, 2023

U.S. proposes changing EV mileage ratings, the government and drug companies fight to keep abortion pill available, and more

A plug-in charging electric car
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1. U.S. proposes changing EV mileage ratings

The Energy Department on Monday proposed changing the way it calculates mileage equivalency for electric vehicles. The change would reduce EV mileage ratings, which could force automakers to improve efficiency of conventional gasoline-powered vehicles or sell more low-emission cars to comply with average mileage targets under the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) program. "Encouraging adoption of EVs can reduce petroleum consumption but giving too much credit for that adoption can lead to increased net petroleum use because it enables lower fuel economy among conventional vehicles, which represent by far the majority of vehicles sold," DOE said. Under the proposal, a Volkswagen EV with a current 380.6 MPGe under CAFE would drop to 107.4 MPGe; a Ford F-150 EV would fall from 237.1 to 67.1 MPGe.

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Harold Maass, The Week US

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.