'A wonky bureaucratic tweak has dramatically changed how Americans drive'

Drivers sit in traffic on southbound Interstate 5 during the afternoon commute heading into downtown San Diego

(Image credit: Kevin Carter / Getty Images)

published 22 March 2024

'The EPA accidentally killed small cars'

Kate Aronoff in The New Republic

There are more pickups and SUVs on the road these days, says Kate Aronoff. Americans have not "suddenly embraced off-roading." The Environmental Protection Agency imposed Obama-era rules with tougher fuel-efficiency requirements for small cars than light trucks. This let car companies ease "the standards to which they're held" by making more pickups, inadvertently "killing the sedan." In 2012, Americans bought far more passenger vehicles than light trucks. Now the numbers are reversed, at the climate's expense.

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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.