The Trump administration on Wednesday proposed rolling back Biden-era fuel economy rules for cars and trucks and replacing them with less stringent standards similar to those introduced in the first Trump term.
The proposal, which President Donald Trump announced at an afternoon White House event flanked by auto executives, would scrap tough standards for model years 2027 through 2031. In their place, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration wants to wind back the clock to model year 2022, undoing former President Joe Biden’s repeal of first-term Trump rules.
The 2024 standards from the Biden administration would have tightened corporate average fuel economy standards from 46.7 miles per gallon in model year 2026 to 50.4 mpg in model year 2031.
The new Trump proposal would revise standards for model years 2022 through 2031. By model year 2031, manufacturers would be required to achieve a fleetwide average fuel economy of 34.5 mpg, according to an NHTSA press release.
“People want the gasoline car,” Trump said at the rollout.
NHTSA said the repeal-and-replace proposal would save $109 billion over the next five years and save families $1,000 on the average cost of a new vehicle.
But greens said the move would raise gasoline prices at a time when Americans are coping with high overall inflation.
“Drivers will be paying hundreds of dollars more at the pump every year if these rules are put in place,” said Kathy Harris, director for clean vehicles at the Natural Resources Defense Council. “That’s only good news for Big Oil, which has been given handouts time and time again by this administration.”
