The Trump administration’s reduction of fuel efficiency standards this week is a win for consumers over heavy-handed government dictates designed to cajole the auto industry into producing electric vehicles, which are costlier, on average, than gas-powered autos. At the same time, anyone who thinks this spells doom for the transition to more environmentally friendly cars is mistaken.
The new policy scales back Biden-era requirements that manufacturers increase the fuel efficiency of their fleets by 2 percent each year, with the goal of reaching 50.4 miles per gallon by 2031. Now, automakers will have to meet a fuel efficiency standard of 34.9 miles per gallon in that time frame.
The Trump administration also eliminated the ability of carmakers to trade credits with one another to meet those requirements. That’s a blow to EV manufacturers, whose business models have depended on such payments, but it gets the government out of the game of picking winners and losers in this area.
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