Previous orders by US Federal government regarding efficiency will be rescinded
- The new boss seeks to skewer most CAFE measures
- Fresh marching orders are intended to gut fuel economy rules
- Those rules were signed into law last June
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Citing the need to protect thousands of jobs and lessen dependency on “unfriendly foreign sources of critical inputs” such as processed minerals for EV batteries, the new decree seeks to bin what are classified as artificially high fuel economy standards. According to the Feds, these old standards would have diminished the strength of America’s auto industry and denied Yanks a full range of affordable ICE vehicles. Most of that last sentence was lifted verbatim from the memo, by the way.
The memorandum also took pains to argue that the former fuel economy regulations would have massively increased the prices of new cars, relegating Americans to driving older machines which do not have modern safety equipment and are more hazardous when calamity strikes. The tough new fuel economy standards enacted by the last administration would “actually increase the number of fatalities and serious injuries occurring each year” on American roads, claimed this memo which was signed by Secretary Duffy yesterday.
It is important to note the important difference between that so-called “unadjusted” number and what fleets will be providing in the real world. The calculation to arrive at the adjusted number causes this author’s head to spin out of control, even more than it does after his grog ration of Angel’s Envy bourbon, but suffice it to say brains much smarter than mine estimate a translation to about 38 miles per gallon (6.19 L/100 km). An original unadjusted target of 58 mpg (4.06 L/100 km) was rebuffed by automakers in July of last year.
These guidelines were not as strict as those which were originally proposed, which asked for a 2 percent and 4 percent annual improvement for cars and light trucks respectively through 2027 to 2031. They ended up agreeing to no increase on light trucks for 2027 and 2028 and 2 percent increases from 2029 to 2031.
With all that out the window, what changes in the short term? Well, the NHTSA has been instructed to commence an immediate review of all existing fuel economy standards and is directed to propose the recision or replacement of any fuel economy standards in order to bring the CAFE program into compliance with the administration’s new goals outlined above.
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