AEA Applauds Reform of Costly, Unsafe Federal Fuel Mandates

WASHINGTON — The American Energy Alliance (AEA) commends the Department of Transportation and the Environmental Protection Agency for righting a wrong of the previous Administration by proposing to keep the 2020 federal fuel mandate levels in place as part of the federal Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) program and for suggesting to eliminate California’s unprecedented and legally questionable waiver to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles and trucks.

As demonstrated in our recent coalition letter, there is a broad consensus that fuel economy reform is needed. We are grateful that the Administration has – through their proposed rule – taken meaningful steps to reduce the burden and irrationality of this outdated and unnecessarily complicated mandate. The proposed rule addresses a number of problems:

• The proposed rule elevates and ensures the primacy of consumer choice over bureaucratic dictates. Automakers now design vehicles to meet the preferences of bureaucrats rather than the preferences of consumers, the proposed rule takes steps toward changing that.
• The proposed rule establishes and confirms true federalism by removing California’s ability to dictate to consumers in other States what kinds of cars they should buy. No State should have the ability to dictate what kinds of cars citizens of other States can or should own.
• The proposed rule is a welcome acknowledgment that the world has changed since 1975.  We now live in an era of energy abundance. The mandate is a relic of a bygone era based on the notion that oil is becoming scarce and needs to be rationed by government action.
• The proposed rule minimizes the costs to consumers imposed by the current mandate. The technical assessments (initially created by the Obama Administration) indicate the mandate, left undisturbed, will raise the average price of a vehicle by at least $3,000 and consequently price some consumers entirely out of the new car market.

Thomas J Pyle, President of AEA made the following statement:

“What started as a mandate in the mid-1970’s to reduce foreign imports of oil morphed into a costly and unworkable environmental regulation thanks to bureaucrats in the previous Administration and in Sacramento. President Trump should be commended for standing up for American consumers by reducing the regulatory burden placed unnecessarily on automakers.

“The fundamental question associated with this mandate is clear: who should decide what types of cars consumers should buy, consumers themselves or bureaucrats in Sacramento or Washington? We think that answer is clear, and, consequently, welcome the Administration’s action.”

###

For media inquiries, please contact Erin Amsberry
[email protected]