Trump challenges Obama-era fuel standards
Some states to challenge his intentions to eliminate ‘industry-killing regulations’
YPSILANTI, MICH.— U.S. President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that the administration will re-examine federal requirements governing the fuel efficiency of cars and trucks, moving forcefully against Obama-era environmental regulations that Trump says are stifling economic growth.
Trump revealed his plans during a speech at an automotive testing centre near Detroit after discussing the issue during a roundtable meeting at the American Center for Mobility with auto company executives and workers.
“This is going to be a new era for American jobs and job creation,” Trump said at the meeting.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under Obama had promulgated a rule for cars and trucks requiring a fleet-wide average of about 6.5 litres per 100 kilometres in real-world driving by 2025.
Trump’s decision, while having no immediate effect, requires the EPA to determine no later than April 2018 whether the 2022-2025 standards established are appropriate.
If the EPA determines they are not appropriate, the agency will submit a new proposal next year.
“My administration will work tirelessly to eliminate the industry-killing regulations, to lower the job-crushing taxes and to ensure a level playing field for all American companies and workers,” Trump said at the centre, which produced B-24 bombers during the Second World War and is being converted into an automotive testing and product development facility.
Trump’s announcement is expected to set the stage for weaker fuelefficiency standards, as well as drawn-out legal battles with environmental groups and states, such as California, which adopted its own tough tailpipe standards for drivers.
“These standards are costly for automakers and the American people,” said EPA administrator Scott Pruitt. He promised a “thorough review” that will “help ensure this national program is good for consumers and good for the environment.”
California Gov. Jerry Brown accused Trump and Pruitt of trying to weaken auto-emission standards in what he called “an unconscionable gift to polluters.”
Brown and New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced their states are intervening in a lawsuit challenging the EPA rule. New York is among more than a dozen, mostly northeastern, states that have adopted California standards.
The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers — which represents a dozen major car manufacturers, including General Motors, Ford, Fiat Chrysler and Toyota — praised Trump’s action.
It said he was creating an opportunity for federal and state officials to “reach a thoughtful and co-ordinated outcome predicated on the best and most current data.”
Environmental groups said Trump and his team appeared intent on easing gas-mileage requirements set by Obama.
“If they succeed, we’ll pay more at the pump, depend more on oil from bad countries, drive up the trade deficit and pollute our kids’ atmosphere,” said Dan Becker, director of the Safe Climate Campaign.
Trump delivered a campaign-style speech in which he railed against big trade agreements, specifically NAFTA and the recent Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), laying out in stark terms his view of how the pacts had hurt the U.S. auto industry and its workers.
Trump said he had kept his promise to withdraw the U.S. from the TPP, an agreement that former president Barack Obama pursued with 11 other Pacific Rim nations.
Trump also wants to renegotiate NAFTA, which includes Canada and Mexico, but he did not mention those plans in Wednesday’s remarks.
“The assault on the American auto industry is over,” he declared.
While the administration has not said explicitly it wants to weaken the standards, a senior White House official said the Obama-era EPA had ignored reams of data cited by the automotive industry.
The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers last month urged Pruitt to relax the standards, saying they will drive up car costs, price customers out of the market and depress the industry.
Obama’s EPA had argued the costs to consumers were mitigated by gas savings and that the rules would decrease greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming.
Trump told the auto executives that while he’s attuned to concerns about the environment, he doesn’t want to stifle jobs.
“We want you to make great cars. And if it takes an extra thimble full of fuel, we don’t want that to stop making it,” he said.
“Sometimes it’s a tiny amount of fuel. It’s a very small thing we’re talking about.”
Trump campaigned on eliminating “job killing” regulations and the administration is expected to take additional steps in the coming days to roll back environmental regulations.