If the Trump regime really had its way, every new car on the road would be able to roll coal.
Crossposted from The Journal of Uncharted Blue Places
You can also catch me at meteorblades.bsky.social
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration unveiled its plan Wednesday to slash Biden-era fuel-economy standards for passenger cars from 50.4 miles per gallon to just 34.5 mpg by 2031. If finalized, it will mark the second time Donald Trump has sabotaged the effort to reduce vehicle inefficiency and pollution. He and his gang might as well be slashing tires.
By any honest measure, the Trump regime’s rollback of Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards isn’t merely policy malpractice. It’s another reason “war” might as well be included in the renaming of every federal department and agency, not just Defense. The proposed retreat on standards comes wrapped in one of the GOP’s favorite disguises — a promise of “freedom.” It’s a cover so flimsy it dissolves the moment you touch it, revealing Big Oil and its puppets grinning beneath.
The idea is designed not just to weaken standards now but also to cripple the ability of future administrations to strengthen them. It’s also to undermine the transition to electric vehicles, which is of a piece with the sabotage of solar and wind sources of electricity.
The Republican “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” eliminated penalties for automakers who fail to meet efficiency targets, no matter how strong or weak they are. And if the rollback holds, communities living near highways — disproportionately Black, Latino and low-income — will for decades breathe the extra pollution less efficient cars will spew in the same way they once sucked ruinous leaded gasoline fumes into their lungs.
Kathy Harris of the Natural Resources Defense Council warns that Trump is “sticking drivers with higher costs at the pump, all to benefit the oil industry,” predicting that households could end up paying hundreds of extra dollars for fuel each year. The regime insists that the relaxing of standards will reduce new vehicle prices — the average of which now is $49,766— by roughly $1,000.
Seriously?
Albert Gore III of the Zero Emission Transportation Association, described this tactic as scapegoating EVs for rising vehicle prices, even though the real drivers are tariffs, supply-chain shocks, and manufacturers pivoting to luxury SUVs. “The cost is dramatically exaggerated and the benefit is always ignored,” he said, recalling ferocious past industry resistance to seat belts and air bags, opposition that delayed their being government-mandated by many years despite the lives they save.
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