The end of last week was very busy for the team of President Donald J. Trump.
While everyone was focused on the confirmation hearings of Tulsi Gabbard and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy was sworn in.
Afterward, he immediately hit reverse on the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards.
On Tuesday, Jan. 28, Duffy directed the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to begin the process of rolling back updated corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standards established by the previous administration. CAFE standards set minimum miles-per-gallon fuel efficiencies for passenger vehicles and fuel consumption standards for certain medium-duty vehicles.Duffy’s directive to rescind Biden-era fuel economy standards came the same day the Senate approved his nomination and stems from an executive order President Donald Trump signed on Inauguration Day.That order directs agencies “to eliminate the ‘electric vehicle (EV) mandate’ and promote true consumer choice … by removing regulatory barriers to motor vehicle access.”Specifically, NHTSA is to begin “an immediate review and reconsideration of all existing fuel economy standards applicable to all models of motor vehicles produced from model year 2022 forward.”
Duffy’s decision was focused on the realities of transportation technology.
Duffy wrote “These fuel economy standards are set as such aggressive levels that automakers cannot, as a practical matter, satisfy the standards without rapidly shifting production away from internal-combustion-engine vehicles to alternative electric technologies.”The standards do not kick in immediately, but instead allow automakers time to adjust their designs and production in order to meet them.The new Secretary said “artificially high” standards force car manufacturers to phase out gasoline powered vehicles, making cars more expensive for buyers and “destroying consumer choice at the dealership.”
As a reminder, the Biden CAFE standards were an attempt to shoehorn the entire nation into de facto adoption of California’s mandates, forcing electric vehicles onto an unwilling population and prohibiting the sale of internal combustion engine vehicles by 2035.
Interestingly, by next year, 35% of new car sales in the Golden State must be zero-emission vehicles.
Meanwhile, reality is beginning to creep into the state’s plans for a green energy utopia. In January, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) ithdrew its request for a waiver to implement Advanced Clean Fleets, effectively killing the regulation that would require drayage operations and larger fleets to replace diesel trucks with zero-emission trucks.
The news comes less than a month after the EPA granted California’s waiver request for Advanced Clean Cars II and Heavy-Duty Omnibus regulations. By 2035, all new passenger vehicles sold in California must be zero-direct-emission, while truck engines must reduce nitrogen oxide emission by 75% and particulate matter by 50%.However, the EPA failed to address four other pending waiver requests from California, including Advanced Clean Fleets and similar emission regulations for locomotives, tugboats, ferries and transport refrigeration units. According to CalMatters, the EPA told CARB it did not have time to grant those waivers.
Hopefully, the Trump administration will figure out a way to put a stake in the heart of this entire regulatory insanity based on pseudoscience and pipe dreams.
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