Trump Administration Seeks to Change Obama’s Fuel Economy Standards

Next week, the Trump administration will begin working on a revision of the U.S.’ fuel economy standards.

The current U.S. fuel economy standards were implemented by the Obama administration. The standards caused a deal between automakers, state officials, environmentalists and federal regulators. In 2012, the aforementioned organizations agreed to start increasing vehicle efficiency in the U.S. on a yearly basis, reaching a target of 34.5 mpg by 2016 and 54.5  by 2025.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s acting head stated that Obama probably didn’t give the deal enough analysis and that the bill should be revisited. He said:

They jumped the gun. It was a political attempt to try to move up the process and what we’re doing is taking the deliberative process of looking at the midyear review the way it was originally intended to be done.”

The EPA and the Department of Transportation are set to release a joint statement to address the subject and offer alternative strategies to replace the previous standards. The new standards will not directly affect the predicted pace of improvement to vehicle efficiency. The standards will reportedly not diminish previously accomplished progress, either.

The EPA is facing a substantial responsibility despite having just lost its previous administrator, Scott Pruitt, after he very publicly misused his power.

It is still unclear how environmental groups will react to the replacements. On the other hand, automakers and organizations such as the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers will probably agree with the revisions, as they have long been supporters of reducing higher fuel standards. A released statement by General Motors confirmed this belief, as it read:

Our priorities for modernizing the standards include the need for one national set of requirements where California and the federal government come to a nationwide agreement. We look forward to reviewing the proposed standards once public and are committed to working with all parties to help achieve these goals.”

Proposed changes will probably be released to the public by early next week.

Featured Image via Flickr/usepagov