Trump Administration to Freeze Fuel Efficiency Requirements

August 02, 2018

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by Brady Dennis, Michael Laris and Juliet Eilperin (The Washington Post) The Trump administration on Thursday announced plans to freeze fuel efficiency requirements for the nation’s cars and trucks through 2026 — a massive regulatory rollback likely to spur a legal battle with California and other states, as well as create potential upheaval in the nation’s automotive market.

The proposal represents an abrupt reversal of the findings that the government reached under President Obama, when regulators arguedthat requiring more fuel efficient vehicles would improve public health, combat climate change and save consumers money without compromising safety.

Trump’s plan also undercuts California’s long-standing ability to set its own tailpipe restrictions, most recently in an effort to curb greenhouse gas emissions.

The proposal argues that forcing automakers to reach a fleet-wide average of 51.4 miles per gallon by 2025, as the Obama administration required, would make vehicles more expensive and encourage people to stick to driving older, less-safe cars and trucks.The administration estimates that halting more ambitous fuel efficiency targets would save Americans thousands of dollars on every new vehicle purchased and avoid 1,000 road deaths a year.

Public health experts and environmental groups condemned the White House proposal even before its official release, arguing that it overlooks how much money Americans would save at the pump if cars were more efficient and also squanders a chance to cut pollution from the transportation sector, which has become the nation’s largest source of carbon dioxide emissions.

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Representatives of the U.S. auto industry praised the administration’s proposal, even as some automakers privately have expressed unease at the prospect of abrupt changes in fuel standards and having to meet different standards in different states. READ MORE

The Safer and Affordable Fuel Efficient Vehicles Proposed Rule for Model Years 2021-2026 (Environmental Protection Agency)

States threaten showdown over White House auto emissions plan (Reuters)

White House Proposal Rolls Back Fuel Economy Standards, No Exception For California (National Public Radio)

Top Trump Officials Clash Over Plan to Let Cars Pollute More (New York Times)

Trump Officials Link Fuel Economy Rules to Deadly Crashes. Experts Are Skeptical. (New York Times)

Trump Unveils His Plan to Weaken Fuel Efficiency Rules (New York Times)

Trump's move to weaken car rules could reopen climate case (E&E News)

Trump proposes rollback of Obama's clean car rules (E&E News)

Report: Trump Fuel Standards Rollback to Cost $457 Billion (GreenTech Media)

Trump moves to roll back Obama emission standards (The Hill)

Rollback of fuel efficiency standards would cost consumers billions (American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy)

Trump Administration Attacks Consumers, Climate, and States with Indefensible New Vehicle Proposal (Union of Concerned Scientists)

BY THE NUMBERS: (Politico's Morning Energy)

Republican leadership on the House Energy and Commerce Committee sent a letter (Politico's Morning Energy)

EPA, NHTSA address high-octane fuels in CAFE/GHG rulemaking (Ethanol Producer Magazine)

Trump makes his biggest move on climate with car rules (E&E News)

The Biggest Climate Rollback Yet? (Rhodium Group)

Why we should cheer Trump’s energy policy gambit (Washington Post; includes history)

VOTERS NOT FANS OF CAR PLAN: (Politico's Morning Energy)

Poll: Nearly half of voters oppose Trump's vehicle emissions plan (The Hill)

Relaxed Fuel Standards Could Jeopardize Arizona’s Air Quality (E&E News/Scientific American)

Trump May Relax Auto Standards While Making Them Harder to Meet (Transport Topics/Bloomberg)

WHEELER READY FOR HIS CLOSE UP: (Politico's Morning Energy)

Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler discusses freezing emission standards (WJLA)

The Interaction of the Clean Air Act, California’s CAA Waiver, Corporate Average Fuel Economy Standards, Renewable Fuel Standards and California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (Advanced Biofuels USA)

Let’s Regulate CO2 Emissions, and Forget the 55.4 MPG 2025 Corporate Annual Fuel Economy Standard: The Inexpensive Way to Quickly Reduce Green House Gases (Advanced Biofuels USA)

Excerpt from Politico's Morning Energy: The Rhodium Group released on Thursday an analysis of the fuel efficiency proposal’s impact on U.S. oil consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. In particular, the analysis challenged the EPA-NHTSA fact sheet released alongside the notice of proposed rulemaking, which says the proposal would increase global CO2 concentrations by 0.65 parts per million. Rhodium found the “increase in annual CO2 emissions resulting from the NPRM by 2035 would be larger than the total national annual emissions today of 82 percent of the countries on earth, and larger than the COMBINED annual CO2 emissions of the 70 smallest countries in the world.” READ MORE

Excerpt from Ethanol Producer Magazine: Brian Jennings, CEO of ACE, commended the EPA for recognizing the benefits of high-octane fuels. “We are very encouraged EPA’s position on high octane fuel is evolving,” he said. “While previously taking fuel ‘off the table,’ EPA now appears to recognize it will need to increase the minimum octane of fuel to help automakers maintain engine efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, going so far as to reference an octane level of 100 and a role for E30 blends.

“EPA concedes in the rulemaking that ‘higher octane fuel can provide auto manufacturers more flexibility to meet more stringent standards by enabling opportunities for use of lower CO2 emitting technologies’ and is seeking comments from the public on the ‘ideal octane level,’ the ‘benefits of increasing fuel octane,’ and specifically how higher octane fuel will play a role in ‘engine technologies and product offerings’ and “improvements to fuel economy and CO2 reductions,” Jennings continued.

“Some might argue EPA’s proposal to flatline the standards will lead to increased gasoline use and tailpipe pollution, but not if the final rule paves the way for E25-30 high octane fuel in future engines,” Jennings said. “Ethanol-enriched, high octane fuel in the 99-100 RON range would enable automakers to simultaneously reduce GHG emissions and improve fuel economy.” READ MORE

Excerpt from Politico's Morning Energy: Republican leadership on the House Energy and Commerce Committee sent a letter last week to EPA and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in support of their proposed rule on fuel economy standards for cars and light trucks. They write that the previous administration made a "rushed determination" that "represented a lack of commitment to the process set forth in 2012." READ MORE

Excerpt from Politico's Morning Energy: Nearly half the voters surveyed in a new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll said they're opposed to the Trump administration's proposal to rollback Obama-era fuel economy standards. Forty-nine percent of registered voters said they either strongly (36 percent) or somewhat (13 percent) opposed the plan, while only 32 percent said the opposite. Twenty percent, meanwhile, said they had no opinion.

The poll also asked voters to break down whether they thought the proposed rollback would help or hurt automakers. Forty-four percent said the proposal would help car companies, while 22 percent said it would hurt them. Asked the same question about the environment, 46 percent said it would somewhat or strongly hurt the environment, with just 20 percent saying it would help. Respondents, however, were more closely divided when asked about the effect on U.S. consumers or the economy. In all, 32 percent of registered voters said they'd heard "some" about the proposal, while 26 percent heard "a lot," 20 percent heard "not much" and another 20 percent heard "nothing at all." The poll was conducted among 1,994 registered voters between Aug. 2-6. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points. See the toplines and crosstabs.

ON TAP TODAY: Conservative state lawmakers with the American Legislative Exchange Council vote today on a model resolution supporting the Trump administration's rollback of auto fuel efficiency standards. The energy task force resolution also backs revoking California's authority to set its own rules. The nonbinding resolution charges that new auto standards would increase vehicle costs by thousands of dollars, "pricing millions of Americans — particularly the economically disadvantaged — out of the new car market entirely."

On Friday, a different task force at ALEC's annual meeting in New Orleans will vote on a resolution against policies that would subsidize "any and all vehicles, energy, fuels and fueling infrastructure," which could slow electric vehicle adoption. The proposal opposes states requiring customers or taxpayers to pay for electric vehicle charging infrastructure that it says "will likely be used by a small minority of consumers." READ MORE

Excerpt from Politico's Morning Energy: Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler gave what appeared to be his first television interview as acting administrator to Sinclair Broadcast Group's Boris Epshteyn, a former Trump campaign aide, where he discussed the administration's proposed rollback of Obama-era car and light truck emissions standards. "We really anticipate more new cars will be sold because the prices will be slightly lower, and when new cars are sold they're safer and they're cleaner for the environment," Wheeler said during the brief sit-down. Watch it here or wait for it to be broadcast across the more than 100 local TV news stations that Sinclair owns and operates. READ MORE