President Joe Biden’s administration on Friday plans to unveil tougher fuel economy standards for vehicles that would reverse his predecessor Donald Trump’s rollback of U.S. regulations aimed at improving gas mileage and cutting tailpipe pollution, officials said.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Deputy Administrator Steven Cliff will make a “major announcement” on fuel economy standards on Friday, the Transportation Department said. It did not offer details of the announcement.
NHTSA last August proposed hiking Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) requirements by 8 percent annually for the 2024 through 2026 model years. NHTSA said those proposed rules would reduce consumer fuel costs by $140 billion for new vehicles sold by 2030 and $470 billion by 2050 and increase the estimated fleetwide average by 12 mpg for 2026, relative to 2021.
U.S. law requires 18 months lead time so the final NHTSA rules must be signed by March 31 to take effect in the 2024 model year that begins in September 2023.
Biden’s administration asked on Monday in its federal budget proposal to Congress for $27.5 million to support the next phase of NHTSA fuel economy regulations “for light vehicles and maximum fuel efficiency standards for medium and heavy-duty trucks and represents meaningful progress toward achieving the administration’s climate agenda.”
Click here to see the full report from Reuters courtesy Automotive News.
