The Trump administration‘s revolution of common sense took another sensible turn this week with the announcement of its plan to roll back federal fuel economy rules for passenger vehicles. The bold reversal of Obama-era standards that were escalated under former President Joe Biden builds on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act’s elimination of civil penalties for Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) noncompliance. The removal of these burdensome federal regulations, including the Biden administration’s preposterous 50 miles per gallon target for model year 2031 vehicles, will benefit the nation in myriad ways.
Crucially, consumers can expect the cost of new vehicles to come down significantly in the coming years. Strict fuel efficiency standards force automakers to adopt expensive technologies that get tacked onto the price. The administration claims that the new standard of 34.5 miles a gallon for vehicles by model year 2031 will save people $109 billion over the next five years and cut the average cost of new cars by about $1,000. The logic behind their math is sound: the avoided technology costs will allow automakers to offer a more affordable product. The nation has been hankering for action on the affordability crisis, and ditching CAFE is a bullseye.
The change will also be a boon to the auto industry. The stubborn truth is that people prefer more affordable gas vehicles to expensive electric vehicles. That means significantly lowering the fuel efficiency mandate will stimulate sales. A thriving auto industry creates a ripple effect throughout the economy. For one thing, it is a jobs multiplier; high car sales means more manufacturing plants, parts suppliers, and auto shops.
Today, the auto industry, which drives over $1 trillion into the economy each year, employs over 10 million workers. Every dollar spent on vehicle manufacturing creates an additional $3.45 in economic value. By allowing people to buy the affordable trucks and SUVs they actually want instead of forcing expensive electric cars on them, millions more vehicles will be sold. This will keep factories humming and protect or create tens of thousands of new jobs.
Stimulating sales will also accelerate fleet turnover. When new cars are expensive, people keep their old, less safe cars for longer — the average age of cars and light trucks rose to a new record of 12.6 years in 2024, up from 11.6 in 2016. A newer fleet of vehicles means fewer highway fatalities and serious injuries due to continuous advancements in structural design and safety technology.
Environmentalist groups predictably reacted to the announcement with horror, arguing that the rollback will be disastrous for the climate. But as they often do, climate alarmists exaggerate the risk here. The entire CAFE mandate was only projected to reduce global temperatures by 0.003 degrees Celsius by 2100. Meanwhile, compliance costs for automakers, suppliers, and ultimately consumers would have registered in the hundreds of billions over the next two decades. Is hamstringing one of our most vital industries and exacerbating the affordability crisis really worth such a vanishingly small temperature reduction, if it’s even accurate to begin with? Rolling back this rule isn’t “destroying the planet.” It’s simply refusing to keep burning hundreds of billions of dollars while China, India, and the rest of the non-Western world continue emitting with zero constraints.
BIPARTISAN BREAKTHROUGH ON OVERCRIMINALIZATION
Critics have also argued that scrapping CAFE will increase gas prices because of increased demand for fuel. But flooding the market with more U.S. oil supply could actually exert downward pressure on global crude prices. And Trump’s parallel push to unleash millions of extra barrels per day is sure to counteract whatever minor rise might occur as a result of increased demand.
Trump’s rollback of federal fuel economy rules is a major win for people whose prosperity relies on a thriving auto industry and access to affordable cars. The era of Washington forcing people to pay thousands extra for green scam policies that do nothing to improve the climate is over — and not a minute too soon.