Conservative leaders cheered Friday the Donald Trump administration’s rollback of the Obama-era gas mileage standard. Studies reveal that the new Trump rule could reduce the price of an automobile by $2,500.
Dozens of conservatives leaders said that they support the Trump administration’s roll back of the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards, which they contend will make cars both more affordable and safer.
Trump’s Environmental Protect Agency (EPA) and the Department of Transportation’s (DOT) National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) released a proposed rule making earlier in August to adjust the automobile fuel economy and greenhouse gas emissions standards to give Americans access to safer, cleaner, and ultimately, more affordable cars.
The Obama-era standard mandated that automobiles sold by car companies have to reach 50 miles per gallon (MPG) by 2025.
Under Trump’s administration’s new proposal, cars and light-trucks would only have to average 37 MPG by 2026.
The conservative leaders, which includes those from conservative groups such as FreedomWorks, Club for Growth, and Tea Party Patriots, said that the Obama CAFE standards “are both expensive and dangerous.” The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimated that the auto manufacturers paid more than $77 million for noncompliance with former President Barack Obama’s $77 gas mileage standards. They added that penalties will get worse unless the Trump administration revises these onerous rules.
Estimates suggest that repealing the Obama-era CAFE standards will reduce the price of an average new vehicle by $2,500, which will allow Americans to purchase safer vehicles that often emit less pollution and have better gas mileage than their current car.
The conservatives said that, in contrast to California’s more onerous CAFE standards, the Trump administration’s rule struck a reasonable balance between reducing emissions and not harming the consumer. The Trump administration also proposed to eliminate California’s waver, which allows the state to impose stricter CAFE standards on their citizens.
Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry said recently in congressional testimony, “CAFE does not stand for California Assumes Federal Empowerment.”
EPA Administration Andrew Wheeler told Breitbart News during an interview in March that the rule will lower the average cost of a new vehicle so that Americans can purchase more modern, safer cars.
Wheeler said:
It’s going to reduce the price of a new car by about $2,300. Right now, people are holding on to their cars longer,” the EPA chief said. “The average lifespan for a car is about 12 years; it used to be about eight years. The older cars are less safe, less environmentally friendly, so by getting the older cars off, by reducing the price of a car, hopefully more people will buy newer cars, safer cars that will also save lives.
“I believe the number is that a million lives will be saved by this proposal as opposed to the Obama proposal, and we get there by reducing the cost of a new car. And we’re still reducing pollutants at the same time,” Wheeler added.
Read the conservatives’ letter endorsing the Trump roll back of the Obama-era CAFE standards here.
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