Environmental Protection Agency acting administrator Andrew Wheeler confirmed Wednesday that the Trump administration this week will release a proposal to weaken Obama-era fuel efficiency standards. Wheeler, in his first testimony before Congress since replacing Scott Pruitt, said he hopes to come up with a “50-state solution” to car pollution rules without taking away the authority of California to set its own standards.
“It’s my goal to come up with a 50-state solution that does not necessitate pre-empting California,” Wheeler told the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.
The EPA, with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, is expected as soon as Thursday to propose freezing fuel-efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions targets at 2020 levels through 2026, instead of raising them each year.
Several reports have indicated that the Trump administration also plans to propose revoking the exception that allows California to set its own, tougher fuel emissions standards, which more than a dozen other states follow.
Wheeler emphasized that the proposal is just that, and said he isn’t ruling out maintaining tougher Obama administration standards, as EPA conducts a public comment process.
The Obama administration’s fuel efficiency and greenhouse gas rules for cars and light trucks had set a 54-mile per gallon standard by 2025, up from the current average of 38.3 mpg.
“The proposal coming out this week is a proposal,” Wheeler said. “[It’s] a range of proposals from a flat-line approach [a freeze], to numbers Obama had, and a number of steps in between. We welcome comments and proposals from any impacted group.”
Wheeler said the new proposal will emphasize highway safety, and vowed that the administration’s preferred approach could save 1,000 fatalities from crashes annually. He also said the proposal would save consumers $500 billion.
The Trump administration will claim that higher fuel standards would make newer cars unaffordable, forcing drivers to use older, less-safe vehicles.
It will resort to an argument frequently used over the last 40 years that less fuel-efficient cars can reduce traffic fatalities because they are heavier. “There are important goals on highway safety so we have to make sure those are met,” Wheeler said.
The EPA chief conceded the proposal to weaken the standards would lead to more oil use, but he claimed the impact on emissions of carbon dioxide would be “negligible.” A leaked version of the draft plan said it would increase fuel use by 500,000 barrels per day.
The Obama administration argued that its stricter rules would have cut oil consumption by about 12 billion barrels and reduced carbon dioxide emissions by about six billion tons over the lifetime of the cars affected by the regulations.
Senate Democrats pressed Wheeler to seek a deal with California and other states to ward off a legal fight that would bring uncertainty to the auto industry, consumers, and the environment. Automakers fear facing a patchwork of regulations preventing them from selling the same cars in every state, and have said they support a year-over-year increase in fuel efficiency standards, although ones weaker than Obama’s.
“Unfortunately, the administration’s proposal cannot be further from the win-win outcome I believe is within reach and stakeholders are asking for,” said Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware, the committee’s top Democrat. “This administration has once again ignored common sense and decided to listen to the most extreme voices pushing through a plan no one is interested in.”
