Trump to announce rollback of EPA mileage and GHG emissions

“We are going to pull back the EPA determination, spend another year looking at data and make sure everything is right,” a White House spokesman said in advance of today’s announcement, which President Trump will make while at a rally in Michigan today, reports the Consumerist.

It’s not as if we didn’t know this was going to happen, though. Digital Journal reported on February 13 that the CEOs of 18 major automakers and their U.S. units sent him a letter urging him to reconsider the rules made by the Obama administration in the waning days before the Trump inauguration.

After heaping praise on Trump over his promise to make America strong again, the automakers wrote in their letter that the tougher requirements would raise production costs and don’t match the public’s buying habits, in addition to the jobs in the automotive industry that would allegedly be at risk.

The EPA tests engine emissions very carefully but there is some debate as to how much focus they put on mileage.

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But consumer groups and environmentalists have countered that increasing fuel efficiency has not caused the price of vehicles to skyrocket while lowering fuel economy standards will end up costing consumers thousands of dollars more a year if gas prices spiral up again as they have done in the past.

“Fuel economy standards ensure cars and trucks go farther on less gas and save Americans money while helping working-class and lower-income families the most,” said Shannon Baker-Branstetter, policy counsel for the group Consumers Union, according to CNN Money.

If the EPA does put a hold on the emissions and fuel economy rules, the only people to get the short end of the stick will be consumers. The EPA regulations are already locked in through 2021, so they can’t be changed. But under the rule, automakers would have until 2025 to double fuel efficiency to 54.5 MPG, and this is what automakers are bucking against.

The EPA said at the time the rule was enacted that it will be “practical and feasible for automakers to meet the model year 2022-2025 standards at reasonable cost” while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and reducing oil consumption, making the rules a centerpiece of President Obama’s climate agenda, along with the Clean Power Plan.