US expected to declare Biden fuel economy rules exceeded legal authority
WASHINGTON: The US Transportation Department is expected to declare that fuel economy rules issued under then President Joe Biden exceeded the government's legal authority by including electric vehicles in setting the rules, automaker officials said Monday.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the department's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on Friday submitted its interpretive rule, "Resetting the Corporate Average Fuel Economy Program" to the White House for review.
The prior administration had "illegally used CAFE standards as a backdoor electric vehicle mandate – driving the price of cars up," he said in a statement.
Removing EVs from the calculations for credits and the regulatory mandates could result in lower overall fuel economy requirements.
NHTSA in June said it would hike CAFE requirements to about 50.4 miles per gallon (4.67 liters per 100 km) by 2031 from 39.1 mpg currently for light-duty vehicles.
Last year, 120 Republican lawmakers said NHTSA exceeded its authority by adopting fuel economy standards "that effectively mandate EVs while at the same time force the internal combustion engine out of the market."
The lawmakers said the agency "accounted for EVs in its regulatory baseline and factored that baseline into its determination of the maximum achievable CAFE standards."
House Republicans last week proposed killing the EV tax credit and repealing fuel efficiency rules designed to prod automakers into building more zero-emission vehicles as part of a broad-based tax reform bill.
Federal law requires NHTSA to set CAFE standards at the maximum feasible level.
The Environmental Protection Agency also plans to reconsider parallel vehicle emissions rules and rescind California's legal authority to ban sales of gas-only vehicles by 2035. The US Senate this week may take up legislation passed by the House to
rescind the approval for California's rules. Automakers like General Motors and Toyota are aggressively lobbying for repeal.
NHTSA said last year the rule would reduce gasoline
consumption by 64 billion gallons and cut emissions by 659 million metric tons. The agency said while some vehicles would be more expensive to buy, consumers would save on fuel costs with estimated net benefits of US$35.2 billion.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Sun
17 hours ago
- The Sun
Elon Musk blasts Trump spending mega-bill as ‘disgusting abomination'
WASHINGTON: US tech billionaire Elon Musk on Tuesday hammered the sprawling tax cuts and spending mega-bill that President Donald Trump is trying to muscle through Congress as a 'disgusting abomination.' 'I'm sorry, but I just can't stand it anymore,' Musk posted on X, days after ending his tenure as one of the Republican's closest advisors. 'This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination. Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.'
The Sun
17 hours ago
- The Sun
Elon Musk Blasts Trump-Backed Spending Bill as ‘Abomination'
WASHINGTON: US tech billionaire Elon Musk on Tuesday hammered the sprawling tax cuts and spending mega-bill that President Donald Trump is trying to muscle through Congress as a 'disgusting abomination.' 'I'm sorry, but I just can't stand it anymore,' Musk posted on X, days after ending his tenure as one of the Republican's closest advisors. 'This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination. Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.'
New Straits Times
21 hours ago
- New Straits Times
Musk blasts Trump mega-bill days after farewell
WASHINGTON: Tensions between Elon Musk and Donald Trump erupted Tuesday as the world's richest man derided the president's key piece of economic legislation in a startling rupture just days after exiting a controversial job in the White House. Musk was lauded by the Republican leader as he left his advisory role atop Trump's "Department of Government Efficiency" last week, despite criticism over his failure to deliver on promises of radical spending cuts. "This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination," Musk posted on X as he followed its progress from the sidelines, in by far his most caustic remarks on Trump's agenda. "Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong." It was not Musk's first comments on Trump's so-called "big, beautiful bill", which is set to add US$3 trillion to US deficits over a 10-year horizon, despite deep cuts to health and food aid programmes. But Musk's previous criticism was more restrained, with the Tesla and SpaceX magnate offering only that it undermined his cost-cutting efforts. On Tuesday he said the bill – being considered by Congress – would burden "citizens with crushingly unsustainable debt." His post laid bare an increasingly tense relationship between the White House and Musk, who donated almost US$300 million to Trump's 2024 election campaign. Musk has become disillusioned, US media reported, as his goals for White House action that would benefit him personally have gone unrealised. The bill he was criticising cuts the electric vehicle tax credit – bad news for Tesla – while Axios reported that Musk was rebuffed in his efforts to extend his role beyond the statutory 130-day limit. He also failed to have his Starlink satellite system used for air traffic control, according to Axios, and was angered by Trump withdrawing the nomination of Musk ally Jared Isaacman to be Nasa chief. The normally pugilistic Trump has pulled his punches, aware of his biggest backer's enormous influence over young, tech-savvy and historically apathetic voters – a key Trump constituency in 2024. "The president already knows where Elon Musk stood on this bill, it doesn't change his opinion," White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters in a rapid response to Musk's tweet. The spat came with House Republicans set to pass legislation sent from the White House to enshrine into law US$9.4 billion of DOGE's cuts, mostly money destined for public broadcasting and foreign aid. House Speaker Mike Johnson called Musk's comments "disappointing", adding that he had walked the entrepreneur through the bill on Monday, and that he "seemed to understand". As the world's richest person bowed out of his role as Trump's cost-cutter-in-chief, their relationship appeared on an even keel as the Republican hailed his fellow billionaire's "incredible service". Trump even insisted that Musk was "really not leaving" after a turbulent four months in which the South African-born tycoon cut tens of thousands of jobs, shuttered whole agencies and slashed foreign aid. DOGE led an ideologically driven rampage through the federal government, with its young "tech bros" slashing tens of thousands of jobs. But its achievements fell far short of Musk's original boast that he could save US$2 trillion – more than the government's entire discretionary spending budget for 2024. The DOGE website claims to have saved taxpayers less than a tenth of that total – just US$180 billion – and fact checkers even see that claim as dubious, given previous inaccuracies in its accounting. Senate Democrats released a report Tuesday itemising 130 examples of "unethical or potentially corrupt" administration actions they say have helped Musk dodge regulation and add US$100 billion to his wealth. The report came as senators began what is expected to be a fraught month of negotiations on Trump's mammoth policy package, expected to add between US$2.5 trillion and US$3.1 trillion to deficits over a decade. Trump said on Monday it was "the single biggest Spending Cut in History," although he added: "The only 'cutting' we will do is for Waste, Fraud, and Abuse."
