Trump boosts gas cars in fuel economy rollback

Ford CEO Jim Farley speaks in Oval Office about lowering fuel efficiency standards

(Image credit: Will Oliver / EPA / Bloomberg via Getty Images)

What happened

President Donald Trump Wednesday announced that the Transportation Department will roll back automotive fuel efficiency standards finalized last year. “People want the gasoline car,” he said in the Oval Office, with the CEOs of Ford and Stellantis and a GM plant manager standing behind him. The new rules would require automakers to produce cars and light trucks averaging 34.5 miles per gallon by 2031, from 50.4 mpg under the Biden-era rules.

Who said what

The White House said slashing fuel efficiency rules would cut upfront costs for a new vehicle by $930. But drivers would collectively spend $185 billion more on fuel by 2050 and emit about 5% more carbon dioxide, environmentalists and economists said, citing the same Transportation Department estimates.

Watering down fuel efficiency standards is “the second part of a one-two punch” against former President Joe Biden’s push to boost electric vehicles, The New York Times said, after Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress got rid of Biden’s EV tax credits earlier this year. Since they also eliminated fines for violating the fuel standards, automakers can already ignore them, said Dan Becker at the Center for Biological Diversity. But future administrations will now find it harder to reinstate the higher standards.

What next?

The Transportation Department will likely finalize the new rule next year. Auto executives “publicly praised” Trump’s announcement but “have privately fretted that they are being buffeted by conflicting federal policies,” the Times said. The rollback also pushes the U.S. “further out of sync with the rest of the world, where the electric vehicle market is growing.” This will “signal to the Chinese that the world market is open to you and we’re just going to abandon it,” Becker told The Washington Post.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.