The U.S. Department of Transportation has introduced a proposal to revise federal fuel economy standards for vehicles, aiming to reverse changes made during the Biden administration. The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), a Washington-based policy group, expressed support for the proposed reforms.
Marlo Lewis, Senior Fellow in Energy & Environmental Policy at CEI, commented on the initiative: “CEI strongly supports the Department of Transportation’s proposal to reset the federal Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) program. Under the Biden administration, industrial policy czar wannabes, regulatory rent seekers, and climate campaigners carjacked the CAFE program, turning it into a power boost for California and the Environmental Protection Agency’s unlawful agenda to ban gas-powered cars, restrict Americans’ freedom of vehicle choice, and price millions of consumers out of the new-car market.”
Lewis outlined two main objectives achieved by Secretary Duffy’s proposal. “First, it slows down mandated increases in fleet average fuel economy. Instead of mandatory fuel economy increasing by rates of 8 percent per year for Model Years 2024 and 2025 and 10 percent for MY 2026, the newly proposed standards increase at a rate of 0.5 percent for MYs 2022-2026. And instead of mandatory fuel economy increasing by a rate of 2 percent annually for MYs 2027-2031, the newly proposed standards increase by rates of 0.35 percent for MY 2027 and 0.25 percent for MYs 2028-2031.”
He added: “Second, by using MY 2022 as the baseline for the reset, the proposed rule rolls back the CAFE program to a time before the Biden administration began to implicitly require the electrification of US motor vehicle fleets. Bravo!”
Once published in the Federal Register, there will be a public comment period lasting 45 days.
In previous analysis from CEI in 2023 regarding NHTSA’s proposed Corporate Average Fuel Economy Standards (https://cei.org/regulatory_comments/cei-comments-on-nhtsas-proposed-corporate-average-fuel-economy-standards/), as well as their call urging NHTSA to cease and desist (https://cei.org/blog/cease-and-desist-cei-urges-national-highway-traffic-safety-administration/), CEI has consistently advocated against what it views as overreach in federal vehicle regulations.
