On Wednesday afternoon, Trump announced his intention to roll back former President Biden\u2019s changes to the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards in a move that oil industry groups like the American Petroleum Institute have been lobbying for months.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday, we\u2019re taking one more step to kill the \u2018Green New Scam,’\u201d Trump said in a press briefing on Wednesday afternoon. \u201cWe\u2019re officially terminating Joe Biden\u2019s ridiculously burdensome, horrible actually, CAFE standards that impose expensive restrictions, and all sorts of problems to automakers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last year, Biden tightened<\/a> some of the requirements in the CAFE standards that have determined the average fuel economy targets for new vehicles for roughly 50 years, making it so that automakers had to achieve an average of roughly 50 miles per gallon fuel efficiency for new vehicles by 2031. The move was part of the Biden administration\u2019s push to boost the electric vehicle industry on the road<\/a> to a net-zero carbon economy by 2050, as the stricter controls made it so that automakers had to invest in more electric vehicles to meet the average efficiency requirements across their fleet.<\/p>\n Now, those requirements will be considerably cut back to an average of 34.5 miles per gallon<\/a> by 2031, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The proposed rules, which would affect 2022-2031 model-year vehicles, are set to make it much easier for automakers to refocus on selling gas guzzlers that deeply alarm environmentalists and climate change activists.<\/p>\n The move comes months after Trump relieved<\/a> automakers from all penalties for not heeding the CAFE standards in their 2022 model cars. Stellantis has had to pay more than $425 million<\/a> in fines since 2022 for failing to meet the CAFE requirements.<\/p>\n It\u2019s also just the latest in a string of attacks by the Trump administration against pro-clean energy policy. Since taking office, Trump has gotten rid of the electric vehicle tax credit<\/a> and canceled billions of dollars\u2019<\/a> worth of clean energy projects.<\/p>\n Joining Trump in announcing the new measures were Ford CEO Jim Farley and Stellantis CEO Antonio Filosa (Yes, the same Stellantis that had to pay all of those fines). Farley called the new measures \u201ca victory,\u201d while Filosa reiterated the multinational company\u2019s recent commitment to invest $13 billion<\/a> in U.S. manufacturing operations.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s because we believe in what you, Senator Duffy, and all your team is doing in this country. We believe in growth, and we are ready to invest even more,\u201d Filosa said.<\/p>\n Somewhat of a sliver of hope for environmentalists amidst all of this is that not all auto giants are excitedly waiting to take full advantage of this rollback.<\/p>\n General Motors is seemingly one of them, despite previously supporting<\/a> the elimination of CAFE fines. Speaking at the New York Times\u2019 DealBook Summit earlier on Wednesday, GM CEO Mary Barra said that the company would continue its current investments in \u201csignificant\u201d fuel economy and emissions improvements for every new vehicle.<\/p>\n