In the midst of soaring gas prices, Trump administration weakens fuel economy standards for new cars and trucks

The Trump administration released a final rule today that substantially weakens the nation’s fuel economy standards – a move that means Americans will pay more for gas and will suffer from more air pollution.

“For decades, our national fuel economy standards have steadily made our vehicles more efficient and less expensive to drive. Now these Trump administration rules will be a sharp U-turn that will mean wasted gas, more pollution, and higher costs for Americans who are already struggling with high fuel prices,” said Andy Su, Senior Transportation Attorney at Environmental Defense Fund. “Raising costs on Americans is the exactly the opposite of what we need. These rules won’t just slam the brakes on progress – they’ll throw us in reverse.”   

The rule was released by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). According to NHTSA’s own analysis, the standards finalized today would allow manufacturers to produce a fleet of vehicles in model year 2031 that are less efficient than the model year 2024 vehicle fleet that’s already on our roads (see page 27, Table I-2). Less efficient vehicles will result in more wasted gas, more pollution, and weaker energy security for the nation.

Less efficient vehicles will also cost more for their drivers. The administration’s own projections in today’s final rule show that Americans will spend, on average, more than $1,600 extra on gas over the life of these less-efficient vehicles – and that analysis does not even account for today’s soaring fuel prices. In fact, the fuel prices in the administration’s analysis never exceed $3.30 per gallon – far lower than the average $4.48 per gallon that Americans are paying today.